Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene briefly presided over the House to the horror of her critics.
A video of Ms Greene wielding the speaker’s hammer went viral Monday night as she temporarily replaced Kevin McCarthy and took on the role of speaker pro tempore.
“I could get used to this…” the far-right legislator declared on Twitter.
However, her critics expressed the opposite sentiment, summed up with one comment: “We are in hell.”
Speaker pro tempore is a temporary position and often changes hands as representatives perform certain duties when the speaker is not on the floor of the House.
It is a position with no real power and can be held by any member of the majority in the House, but Ms. Greene’s appearance in the chair reveals that the Republican Party could move her way, making her less of a fringe politician and more of a mainstream member of the party.
Last month, after helping Mr. McCarthy become speaker on the 15th ballot, Ms. Greene was placed on the Oversight and Accountability and Homeland Security committees.
This came two years after she was kicked out of her committees in response to her extreme social media posts.
Footage shared on Twitter of Ms Greene wielding the gavel has been viewed more than a million times.
“This makes me physically sick,” says comedian Kiki Melendez tweeted.
From 9-11 truth finder, Sandy Hook false flag conspiracy theorist, Jewish Space Laser anti-Semitism, Q-anon cookery, pro-insurgent, election denier, MAGA extremist quack to now Speaker of the House. Marjorie Taylor Greene IS the mainstream GOP. We WARNED you,” Tara Setmayer, Lincoln Project consultant, wrote.
Comedy duo The Good Liars shared a clip of Ms Greene “in which she believes Ruth Bader Ginsberg has been replaced by a body double”.
Progressive political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted “Marjorie Taylor Greene now presides over the U.S. House of Representatives. This is who the Republicans have put in charge.”
Responding to Ms. Greene’s “I could get used to this” tweet, Mr. Cohen added that “Marjorie Taylor Greene enjoys presiding over Congress and suggests she wants to become Speaker full-time”.
“If this doesn’t chill your blood to the core and wake up Americans TF, I honestly don’t know what will,” Ryan Wiggins of the Lincoln Project wrote.
David Rothkopf said it was time to “weep for the republic”.
Gun safety attorney Fred Guttenberg said“this would be a good time for a ‘Jewish’ space laser”.
Columnist Tom Eblen said the “prisoners” now run “the asylum”.
“This is the QAnon-embracing, insurgent-sympathizing face of the Republican Party. Well done guys,” Rex Huppke added.
“My God. It’s really hard to imagine how we could sink any lower. This is GOP leadership. School shooting denial. Jewish space lasers. Q believer,” Nathan Quarry said.
“This is right up there with the excrement of rioters as the greatest desecration in the history of this hallowed seat of democracy,” says Professor Michael Mann. tweeted.