Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia this week discussed the hard work of being a member of Congress. Along with the time the job takes away from family, Greene said a downfall was taking a pay cut.
Greene made the comments during an appearance on journalist Glenn Greenwald’s show that airs on Rumble. The interview touched on topics such as the war in Ukraine and the recent prolonged struggle to elect a new House speaker before Greene brought up some personal complaints.
Greene cited financial losses as one of the negative aspects of her role as a representative. According to official records, rank-and-file members of Congress make $174,000 a year.
“Becoming a member of Congress has made my life miserable. I made a lot more money before I got here. I’ve lost money since I’ve gotten here,” Greene, who once owned a gym, said. Newsweek could not independently verify her previous salary.
Greene also spoke of the time-consuming nature of being in Congress, noting her job takes up “too much” time.
“It’s turned into practically year-round,” she said. “And for those of us in the House of Representatives, we have to run for Congress every two years. So you’re practically campaigning nearly the entire time that you’re here serving as a representative.”
Greene told Greenwald that such a time commitment results in many lawmakers falling into what she said feels like a “social club here in Washington, DC.”
She also mentioned that she’s been harassed by people due to the nature of her work.
“I have people come up to me and say crazy things to me out of the blue in public places that they believe because they read it on the internet or saw it on some news show about me,” Greene said.
Elsewhere in the interview, the congresswoman went into detail about her support of former President Donald Trump.
“I have America First views because of my life, because of my life experience, and that’s why I supported President Trump,” Greene said. “Decades ago, the leaders in Washington joined together with big corporations and started to make trade deals. This was what led to many of our manufacturing jobs, blue-collar jobs, being sent overseas to foreign countries where they started manufacturing goods.”
As a result, she said, “many types of great American jobs disappeared” so that now “small-town America today is suffering.”
She continued, “When President Trump ran for president in 2016, that was something that he understood and talked about, and that’s why average Americans—people like me and people all over America—supported his America First message.”
Greene went on to say that she shared the same message as Trump.
“I believe we have to fight for the regular American. We have to fight to revitalize small-town America. We have to fight to bring hope back. We have to fight to bring jobs back,” she said.
Newsweek reached out to Greene for comment.
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