Bulwark Takes - BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene Drops Sudden Resignation Video

Episode Date: November 22, 2025

Sam Stein, JVL and Andrew Egger take on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s shocking resignation announcement: why she did it, why it blindsided GOP leadership, what it says about Trump’s grip on the party, and whether this is the start of something bigger.

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please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. All right. Hey, everybody. It's me, Sam Stein, managing out at the Bullock, joined by JVL here on a Friday night, super late because we have some heartbreaking news for JVL, some real news for us here. Marjorie Taylor Green, who has been making a lot of waves, is resigning from Congress. She put up, like, completely, I don't know, or put up a statement in a video, and not think she was going to be stepping down on January 6th or 7th, 6th, 5th. 5th. The day before the January, Sixth Anniversary. Right. Two days after she gets her pension, and we can get to that later. Anyways, let's listen to the video, and on the flip side, JVL, you tell me what you think. I have too much self-respect and dignity.

I love my family way too much, and I do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president that we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms. and in turn be expected to defend the president against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me. It's all so absurd and completely unsurious. I refuse to be a battered wife, hoping it all goes away and gets better. If I am cast aside by the president and the MAGA political machine and replaced by neocons big pharma, big tech, military industrial war complex, Foreign leaders and the elite donor class that can never, ever relate to real Americans,

then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well. There is no plan to save the world or a 4D chess game being played. When common American people realize and understand that the political industrial complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington's machine from gradually destroying our country, and instead, the reality is that they, common Americans, the people, possess the real power over Washington, then I'll be here by their side to rebuild it. Until then, I'm going back to the people that I love, to live my life to the fullest, as I always have, and I look forward to a new path ahead. I'll be resigning from office with my

last day being January 5th, 2026. And I look forward to seeing many of you again sometime in the future. May God bless you all. And may God bless America. Sam, where's the lie? Show me. Show me the lie in any of that. It's not so much a lie. Okay. I'm not saying she's lying. But there is something like, it's almost like circular logic that I'm having trouble following, right? she's like, well, if I could be replaced by, you know, neocon, pharma shill, it's like, yeah, you can be replaced if you resign. Like, you should stay in office. If you feel like that might happen, then stay in office and fight it out. I don't know. No, this is, look, honestly, not a bit. This is not a bit. I find her logic. I agree with that. I agree with that. I agree with that.

she she looks at the world and she says okay so i'm going to have to run a primary in my district which i'll probably win because like georgia is the state that stayed with brian kemp right remember like they they they like their conservatives there and uh and then i'll win this thing after having you know uh eight digits of money dropped on my head on t TV. By the MAGAPACs. By the MAGAPs. And I'll go back to Washington with the Republicans now being in the hole by like 35 seats. Yeah.

And my job will be to defend Donald Trump for two years. Yeah. That's true. All that's very true. And like, I am sorry, but what, what, this is, it's a house seat. They, they make those things, you know, they give those things away, basically. There's so many of them. Except for New York 12.

New York 12 is like, New York, Toronto. Literally anyone who wants, has a pulse is running in New York. But honestly, like, I just,

this is a, this is the kind of logic that you would have thought that so many Republicans from the pre-Trump days would have followed, right? They would have said, I'm sorry,

you want me to beat a MAGA challenger and then go back to Washington, and just get on my knees and spend all of my time defending the indefensible for this guy who hates me anyway? Well, there's an alternate path, man. Very few of them did it. They were just like, sure, I'll do that. Just let me keep my seat.

God, I have a seat. I want to wear my lapel pin, please. Yeah, but JVL, there's an alternate path, right? Let's say in theory, she takes the step of running again, getting eight figures poured on her and surviving. The other, it doesn't mean she has to go and become. Trump's defender in the House minority, she could actually do what she's doing now. She could speak out against them when she feels like she needs to.

And she could just gradually go towards a more independent, you know, right-wing nationalist-type populist-type populist posture. What are you going to do in the house? The problem is, the problem is you're powerless in the house. In the house, there's nothing, there's nothing to be done. And the whole focus of the, you know, 26 to 28 will be accountability for. for Trump and whatever that means. Are you endless hearings and if you're a Republican in the House, your job is going to be a sit around and defend him.

And look, in a perfect world, I'd say, just switch parties, Marjorie. Yeah, right. But of course, but she's not a Democrat. And this is the thing where Democrats are like, oh, you know, we can't be a big enough tent to bring her in. She's not asking to be brought in. She doesn't agree with you guys about hardly anything. It's just that she believes all the stuff she has said about.

like the elites and corruption and all that stuff and like she really believes all the stuff about abuse of of girls and that has led her to be like peace out so why do it now why do it now though that's the question right like we have a eight months at least maybe more way more 10 months till we get the elections like there's no reason to do it right now what's your theory Friday before thanks I mean honestly it's so I just this just feels so it so it does not appears, though, anybody in Republican leadership got a heads up on this. Very much so, yeah. This is what I've said the whole time when people are like, oh, but don't you think she's

laying the ground for somebody? And I'm like, I am sorry. I have now been a fairly close Marjorie Taylor Green watcher. And this is not a woman who is plotting her moves out 12 deep, right? Like, she just, she sees things in the world and she says stuff and she does it. Like, she starts doing CrossFit and she likes CrossFit so much. opens a CrossFit gym. Right.

Like, this is, this is just who she is. This has that vibes. This has the vibes of someone who had like, you know, maybe she had a nice glass of chardonnay tonight. She's eating dinner with her husband or boyfriend, Brian. She's like, you know what? I just don't like this. Get the camera rolling.

Let's tape. It's like, that's that. And, you know, honestly, it's so, it is refreshing to see a Republican who doesn't view a congressional seat as the most important. thing in their lives because that's what we have seen so much like the Pete Myers of the world and right all of these guys you should probably should probably recap for the audience what Pete Myers journey was here what was Pete Meyer's journey so he's a freshman elected to Congress his first thing to do from Michigan his first thing to do was to oh look at that

son of a bitch JR it's the third man there he is there is bursting in like the We'll go back to Pete Mayer later. Andrew Eager, what do you think? He had to run home to get on this because he was so amped. I am amped, but I don't know. I'm a little, I'm paralyzed because I don't know what you would have already done. Oh, oh, you know what? That makes it even hotter.

You just start talking. You have no idea what our line is on this. Okay, can we talk about the human element real quick? Maybe you've already done this. Just the, like, just how, like, insane it is to watch an elected Republican. just sort of talk openly about what it's like to have Donald Trump try to put them down. You and J.B.L. Same camp here. Very human video. Yeah. I just mean like, like, she's absolutely right, right? I mean, she's like, I fought like hell

for this guy for, for years and years. And I took a couple stances that were more to his base than he is. And now he's trying to crush me over that. And he's going to dump tens of millions of dollars into into my district. I'm going to have to like fight that. Spend the next. year. And then, and this was my favorite thing about her video, maybe you already did this, too. Like, and then Democrats are going to retake the house. And I'm going to have to spend the next two years still getting none of the stuff done that I want to get done. And instead, just having to be his big cheerleader against the impeachment efforts. Like, of course I'm not going to do that. Like, that was her, that's her stated understandable, sane rationale for not true. Because she doesn't value holding a seat in Congress as the single most important thing in her life. And a thing that is worth, uh, disfiguring her soul for. And if only more Republicans viewed public service in that way. Okay. Okay.

Hold on. Andrew. Why now, though? Why do it now? Well, she's going to run the president, right?

I mean, doesn't that seem obvious? Isn't that the obvious ending of the video? Like when, when the American people are ready to join me in this fight, you know, she's making the play, it actually kind of hurts her to have to have to be the Trump defender,

like to kind of meekly go. Yeah, but she could do this at any point between now and the midterms. No, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, by, by, by, by doing this now. And, and, and she has to make a choice. She has to grovel. She has to kiss the ring. Or she has to do this weird dance where, like, she, she, she does, like, the Brian Kemp thing. And she doesn't declare war on him, but she beats him and then tries to, like,

maintain this uneasy truce, but actually, but then would actually have to go right back to defending him. And she's saying, like, like, like, she's taking the human sense. Why does she have to go back? But why does she have to go back to defending him? Well, that would be her job. That would be her job as a Republican in Congress under a Democratic House. She's currently Republican in Congress and she's currently not defending him.

But under a Democratic House, that would be the agenda. That's her point in the video. The agenda under a Democratic House is impeached Donald Trump. And so like- The entire Republican caucus agenda will be defend Trump. Defend Donald Trump. Yeah. Right.

And so what else would she do? Because you can't move agenda items, right? You can't. Let me put this, let me put this Tim Miller tweet to you guys. First, JVL, then Andrew. Tim, our dear colleague writes, The streak of Republicans challenging Trump and then quitting continues a pace. I thought MTG would be different, sad exclamation point.

I mean, just a hard disagree. Just a hard disagree. She's a straight shooter with upper management written all over her. I mean, I just, again, I look at what she's done. And I see what Andrew's saying, like, maybe you're looking like, oh, maybe she wants to start a third party, right? I do not, I mean, also, I'm sorry, just watch her video. She is not a raw political talent who gets elected president.

Or like, she is much more like a normal person taught, right? Like, that does not, she does not look like Zoran Mamdani or, or our buddy Cam, right? Cam's fantastic for Ed or so many, like, you know, she's just a woman who's like, yeah, you know, get my phone, set it up. I'm going to sit down at the sofa and just tell. people and I'm not doing this. And, uh, and that's great. And I honestly, two years is such a long time in Marjorie Taylor Green's life. She could decide that she's going to like start a cooking show between now and then. Like, I mean, I honestly believe that like, you know,

she's going to, she's going to find something else interesting in her life. And she's a woman of great enthusiasms. Maybe she gets really into woodworking. I would watch a cooking show. Start building building craftsman furniture. I watch her cooking show. I think she's going to run for president as a Republican. I think that there's a pretty, I mean,

it's not the only way you can read this video because it is all subtext, but I think there is a very, like, faithful reading of what she's doing right now that basically says Donald Trump is failing the MAGA movement that has been built up around him.

He is, he is jettisoning critics who are more faithful to that MAGA spirit. than he is because, you know, of his own just sort of personal hangups and his inability to be crossed. And, and it is, I consider it my, my goal as a public figure to, to advance that agenda. I'm not able to advance that agenda in Congress right now. I don't think I'm going to be able to advance that agenda next Congress either with Donald Trump as president. And, and I think that, that one possibility is that she's just saying, fuck it all and walking away. But the other very

obvious possibility is that she thinks she is this a more plausible receptacle for for what maga is than jd vance is and i think i think like that's actually a really fascinating question because like what is maga like if maga is this like primarily this weird like pseudo uh social um like celebrity cult thing the that that this like plurality of the republican party this feeling they all have toward donald trump where it's like him or high water then jd vans is like the the inheritor of that, right? He is the guy who has, like, put his own soul under the knife more extensively than anybody else.

Say that again? Or Don Jr. Yeah, sure, sure. Although even Don Jr. has not, like, gone through the ritual cell of basements at all. No, no, no, come on, guys. It's because it's not, it has nothing to do with, I mean, some of its ideology, but it's really personality, right? It's like Don Jr. is the closest by name to Trump.

I mean, Donald Trump was in the Oval Office today praising Zora Mamdani. Like, what are we talking about? Yeah, but there's not, there's not. It's not that. If that's not the main thing of MAGA, if the main thing of MAGA is actually just this sort of like broader seething iconoclasm and desire to see elites brought low and like this particular policy agenda and really, really isolationist foreign policy, stuff like that, then I mean, Marjor Taylor Green is is moving pretty aggressively to corner that market as like the most sort of like plausible like figurehead for that. So I don't know. I would not. This makes me more likely more, more a higher expectation rather than a lot. lower expectation that she actually has higher player ambition. You know, Andrew, this feels like that scene in the dark night where the Joker goes to Harvey Dent, and Harvey's like, you planned it this way. Joker looks at me, goes, do I look like a guy who makes plans?

Does Marjorie Taylor Green strike you as a woman who makes a lot of plans? Well, can I answer that? The Joker had made plans, though. That's the thing, right? The Joker had planned it. Yeah, and that's, I mean, like, Martin Taylor Green has done both sides. of it. I mean, she came into Congress, like, just, like, flailing around and, like, very quickly found herself, like, kicked off all her committees and all of those sorts of things. And then

she kind of, like, reinvented herself in this very strange way. I mean, in almost like a weird funhouse mirror version of what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did on the other side, where she made herself an indispensable ally of Kevin McCarthy and, like, you know, got a lot, like, actually started acquiring institutional power for herself in a way that actually does kind of suggest that she was very serious about, like, getting some of these bills passed, right? And that's what she talked about in the video. She's like, my bills are gathering dust. Mike Johnson won't have a vote on them. Donald Trump is, you know, kicking me. I mean, it's like very much not like, I'm taking my ball and going home. It's very much like, I am going home to think about how to like change this.

You know what I mean? I could be completely wrong about this, obviously. Like I, again, I, I look at the Kevin McCarthy thing is Kevin McCarthy was another institution to which Marjorie Taylor Green thought she was supposed to give her devotion to. And he felt just like the Catholic Church, just like, you know, marriage and family life. And it turns out it wasn't, but she was with Kevin because she's like, hey, I got to Congress. And now we have the majority. And, well, he's the leader. And I, you know, he's nice time.

You support the leader. That's how you get things done. Right. And that's why she became his gal. And it turned out not to work out. But, you know, I, anyway, that's, I don't think there was a lot, like, AOC, I think made a very clear, I'm going to, I'm going to become a serious lawmaker. I don't want to be a backbencher. I don't think Marjorie Taylor Green did that.

Maybe I'm wrong. No. This could be an incorrect read. No, I think that's where I read. The other thing I would just say, and this is like in the weeds governance stuff, but like, it's just a biting indictment of the House of Representatives, right? like nothing's getting done there it's just i mean this whole past week has been an example of that where there's just dueling censures like you know mike johnson's out of control he can't you know stop the obscene files from happening and you know different lawmakers are trying to do

different discharge petitions it's just no institutional prerogative or self-respect that's that is not true of the house as an institution because four short years ago when When the Democrats had a similarly tiny majority, Nancy Pelosi was able to move a whole mess of legislation. That's true. That's true. It's true. This house with this party and this leader are a joke.

Yeah. But it's not like an institutional thing. And it's not because their margins are so thin. Again, the Pelosi House with Democrats for the first two years of Biden administration, had almost the exact same margin, right? And they move an assload of legislation. That's true. The only nuance I would add is that even in the Pelosi House, it was so,

and we're getting really new to it, but it was so hierarchical and so leadership driven that unless you're part of like a, you know, a committee chair or a member of leadership, you really don't have much to do. You could do messaging bills. You can like go on TV and rail. And that's what she did. But like you're not really doing. anything in terms of legislation. Even under Pelosi, you're just trying to, like, be a reliable

vote and maybe get an amendment. And I just, you know, maybe that, I don't think this is what compelled her, but it certainly didn't keep her there, right? Like, I think if there were other opportunities or more power for individual lawmakers, maybe she has a different perspective, but that, that was her main gripe as far as Mike Johnson was concerned in that video. There were the two things. There were the fact that he kept the house out of session for eight weeks just to dodge, you know, the various. Which is crazy. But the other thing was that she has all these bills and she thought they ought to be able to see the light of day in a Republican Congress. And they never did. She said they sat there gathering dust. And like, you know, it does seem just from that, I mean, she she had she did

introduce all this legislation, right? And, and she felt like it, it deserved a hearing. Some of it was insane. You know, like, is there, is there a parallel here to her career that I'm like missing? it means anyone like this in our political life before i can't even think of a similar figure to this somebody said sarah palin i don't think that's quite right no that doesn't seem right i mean i guess there's i guess they're as close as anyone could be but like no it it it i think it's also the compressed time frame of it too it's like it went in the course of half a year from being like copacetic and fine to like not great to like combustible to I'm leaving and that was just like it just really happened super fast there's a weird sense in which it's like what happened

to Paul Ryan after he was elected speaker and he was like this is great like I'm the speaker I have all these ideas I mean like the difference is he actually got to pass all of them he passed like Pelosi uh during Trump's first term Paul Ryan passed like a billion of his own like sort of policy ideas through the house they all and then they all just died in the Senate But then, you know, he, I guess, sort of gradually came to the realization that, like, even though Trump was letting him do all of that in the house, there was no future for any of that stuff. His vision of the Republican Party was going to kind of die with him and he, he pieced out, which is different. That part is different because Marjorie Taylor Green's version is still still on the rise. I don't want people to think that I am a total in the tank for Marjorie Taylor Green.

So I do have one very, very real criticism. Go ahead. only monsters put up their Christmas tree before, thanks. Yes. Oh, my God. When I saw the Christmas tree in the back, I thought, oh, come on. Nope. No, don't you do that.

This is like the people who start putting up like Halloween decorations in mid-August. That's ridiculous. I don't like it. Sam, you don't understand. Your people don't do the trees. Well, because I'm Jewish, yeah. I had exactly. Here I thought, JV.

Hold on one other thing. just so you guys can can i'm kind of curious what you think about this i'm on polly market because that's what i do they have a question will trump praise marjor taylor green by december 31st do you think that percentage has gone up or down following this tell me what it was that's going to give it away uh all right it was 20 percent yes he will praise her by december 31st i mean honestly i couldn't guess that strike me as an absolutely random proposition. Sure.

And I don't, I also don't know, that's a bad bet because, like, how does that get structured? What counts as praise? Yeah, what's kind of this praise. In what way. Like, that's, you're right. Don't worry about the bet. Well, I'll tell you what the markets think.

It's now up to 55% yes. People are interpreting this as she's getting out of the way of Donald. He's going to reach out to her and say, she has had a great career. Thank you for your service. I'm not so sure. I don't know about that. I could see that. She burned the bridge pretty hard.

So did Elon. Elon said he was a pedophile. And three weeks later, they were like, yeah, it's all cool. Right? I mean, this is, I, Donald Trump said he was going to send troops into New York to stop Zoran Mundani from turning it to a social hellhole. And then today, they're like broing it up and J.D. Vance is like on the side, like, oh, shit, oh, shit. What did you think of that?

I haven't gotten your take on that JV. I talked to Sarah about it, but did you see it? Did you watch it? I even see it. I've only read about it. I want to hear you guys. Tell me real quick. Give me your quick takeaways.

Oh, man. I mean, it was like truly, I mean, everything with Trump is a little surreal, but this one was like comically surreal. At one point, they were like, a reporter was like, Mr. Maldani, you called him a fascist. Do you stand by it? And you could tell Zeran's really struggling to figure out how to like spin this one. like how to get it back to affordability. And Trump just looks at him and he's like, don't worry about it.

You can stand by it. And he gives him a little out of boy tab. My only read of it, and I have no idea. Like the only thing that even halfway made, that I have been able to come up with that even halfway makes sense is that they both kind of came into the meeting thinking that they were going to try to be like the magnanimous one and come out that way.

And then neither of them ever dropped that and then the meeting ended. Right. I mean, like, I don't know. Yeah, I think that could be... Or just straight and flattery. Why isn't it possible that Mumdani decided to take the same approach to Trump that, like, foreign leaders do?

I think that's exactly what he decided. I mean, but why not? Why? I mean, this is... National Democrats can't do that, but Zoran could. He's a little bit light. He's not a traditional Democrat. He's very local to New York.

He can say... And he was able to do it in a way that was not grotesque in like Gretchen Whitmer, right? Because Gretchen Whitmer has tried to do this in the most pathetic way possible. Right. And Moundani did it in a very Hollywood way. Right. And I don't know. Maybe that'll work.

I mean, this is why I told Sarah, is that because she was sort of, she and I were a little bit of disagreement about whether it was the smart thing for him to do. For which, Mom Donnie or from? For Mom Dany. And my point to her was this man, this young mayor, has four or five months where he's got to make it work. Because after that, it's just going to be hell. Every mayor's life is hell, right? But you get a little grace period and you don't want to spend it with the federal government saying we're taking away trillions. And oh, by the way, we're sending in the National Guard and canceling all these infrastructure projects.

Like, you just don't need that on your plate. So he bought himself six months. and that was worth it. You know, you know what they say, Sam? What? Only in New York, kids. Only in New York. I'm walking here.

Nobody advised themselves six months with Trump, though. I mean, you get, you get until Trump decides, you know, until Trump decides it's over. Three or four. What if he sends Trump some gold cufflinks made of, like, subway tokens? This is a with a little grace note on it saying, Mr. President, I know we have many disagreements, but I really appreciated the way you welcomed me into your palace. And I just want you to know, next time you want to come up to New York, we'll put your face in one of the big time square things because, you know, people should respect it. I mean, it could literally be something as stupid as that.

And maybe Trump is all in. I think, see, I think he should have, he could have renamed the subway stop at Jamaica, Donald Trump, Donald J. Trump subway stop at Jamaica, Queens or something like that. Trump would have loved that shit. Mr. Trump, would you like a subway stop named after you? We could do that, sir. Oh, Zeron. All right.

I got to run. I got to go be a parent. This was fun. MTG, guys, retiring or announcing she's resigning tonight in a crazy, unexpected video. We brought to you live here. Well, not live tapes. But subscribe to the feed, JVL. Andrew, thank you guys both. Appreciate it.