Marjorie Taylor Greene launches attack on Hakeem Jeffries

Marjorie Taylor Greene assailed House Democrats while her fellow Republican colleagues continue wrangling over who should be the next House speaker.

On Wednesday, the Georgia Republican representative posted an advertisement paid for by her campaign, Greene for Congress Inc., attacking New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York who has received full support from his fellow caucus members for the speaker position.

In the 30-second ad shared to Greene’s personal Twitter account, the video criticizes Jeffries’ congressional history, including his membership on the Congressional Progressive Caucus, voting with President Joe Biden “100 percent” of the time and serving as House manager for former President Donald Trump‘s first impeachment trial in 2019.

The video also claims that Jeffries “divides the American people,” and includes a clip of him saying, “Every racist in America voted for Donald Trump.”

“NEVER HAKEEM,” reads the final slide of the advertisement.

The video was posted while Greene and her fellow House members were adjourned after a sixth vote failed to elect the next House speaker for the new congressional term. Republicans, who barely hold a majority in the chamber with 222 seats, have been unable to push the next speaker through, as 20 members of the GOP have dissented from the majority that supports Representative Kevin McCarthy as the next leader.

In her tweet Wednesday, Greene commented along with her photo, “The hate-America Democrats have a new leader: radical leftist Hakeem Jeffries.”

“Hakeem is more dangerous than Nancy Pelosi,” she continued. “GOP must unite. We must stop Hakeem and the Democrats from destroying America. Defeat the Democrats!”

Greene has been an avid supporter of McCarthy as the next speaker, and has been highly critical of GOP members who have blocked the California Republican from winning the position, including a few of her closest conservative allies such as Representatives Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert.

On Tuesday, Greene tweeted that the Republicans who were voting against McCarthy “are playing Russian roulette with our hard earned Republican majority right now.”

“This is the worst thing that could possibly happen,” she added.

Prior to the House adjourning on Wednesday, McCarthy had only earned 201 votes from his fellow Republicans—substantially less than the 218 needed for election. Jeffries had 212 votes from his fellow Democrats, and the 20 dissenting Republicans cast their ballots for Representative Byron Donalds.

After reconvening Wednesday evening, the chamber voted to adjourn again until Thursday for a seventh round of voting. The extra time could give Republicans a chance to reach accord on whom to push through as the next speaker of the House.

Newsweek hasreached out to the press team of Jeffries for comment.