Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reportedly tried to place Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) on a live phone call with former President Donald J. Trump Friday night moments after Rosendale voted against Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for speaker of the House on the unsuccessful 14th ballot.
McCarthy’s loss on the 14th ballot came by just half a vote, adding further tension to the 118th House of Representatives that had been voting for a speaker since Tuesday. Al Drago, a D.C.-based photojournalist, tweeted an image of what was called a “heated exchange” between the two representatives following Rosendale’s vote for Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ).
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, holds her smart phone with former US President Donald Trump on the line, as Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Republican from Montana, waves it off during a meeting of the 118th Congress in the House Chamber on Friday.#SpeakerVote pic.twitter.com/VWvOGfXd9Q
— Al Drago (@Al_Drago) January 7, 2023
Greene, who has repeatedly voted for McCarthy, is seen extending her iPhone on a live phone call with a contact named “DT.” Drago, who identified the contact as the former president, noted that Rosendale, who was one of 21 former McCarthy detractors, “waves it off.”
Heather Caygle, the managing editor at Punchbowl News, tweeted that members had informed her of the same “heated exchange.”
Members tell me MTG and Matt Rosendale we’re getting in heated exchange at same time as Rogers/Gaetz
MTG was telling Rosendale she has Trump on her phone and he needed to talk to the former president right then
Rosendale shouted repeatedly, “don’t you ever do me like that!”
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) January 7, 2023
“MTG was telling Rosendale she has Trump on her phone and he needed to talk to the former president right then,” she wrote. “Rosendale shouted repeatedly, ‘don’t you ever do me like that!’”
The Georgia representative took to Twitter and called…