Marjorie Taylor Greene Faces Backlash Over Ditching Congress for Costa Rica

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, faced backlash on Friday for heading to Costa Rica for vacation, ultimately skipping Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's address to Congress and not voting in person on the nearly $1.7 trillion omnibus bill.

The GOP lawmaker has been vacationing with her family throughout the past week, Business Insider reported Friday. However, she still managed to assert her presence online by posting a Twitter thread about her support to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his bid for House speakership. In a different Twitter thread, Greene also blasted Representative Lauren Boebert after the Colorado Republican criticized her over her past belief in "Jewish space lasers."

However, her online presence wasn't enough to those who criticized her on Twitter for leaving at a time when her state is experiencing power outages caused by an extreme winter storm.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene vacations in Costa Rica, while hundreds of thousands of Georgians are out of power. Cruz vacationed in Cancun, while hundreds froze to death. Trump vacationed on his golf courses, while Covid ravaged our nation. When s*** hits the fan, Republicans vacation!" political commentator Lindy Li tweeted.

Greene has also been blasted for criticizing Zelensky and skipping his address to Congress on Wednesday, tweeting before his speech that international foreign aid is like Americans being "raped everyday at the hands of their own elected leaders."

"Despite all of her angry tweets about the Omnibus bill and Zelenskyy, Marjorie Taylor Greene was caught fleeing the country to Costa Rica for vacation earlier this week. She voted by proxy, despite introducing a bill to ban proxy voting earlier this year," tweeted by political action committee, MeidasTouch.

Greene voted against the spending bill by proxy despite heavily criticizing it, saying in a Monday letter posted by PatriotTakes on Twitter: "I am unable to physically attend proceedings due to the ongoing public health emergency [COVID], and I hereby grant the authority to cast my vote by proxy to the Honorable Barry Moore (Alabama), who has agreed to serve as my proxy."

"Marjorie Taylor Greene is vacationing in Costa Rica right now instead of voting on important bills. She's en [sic] embarrassment to the US," said Twitter user Harry Sisson.

Erica Marsh, a former field organizer to President Joe Biden, also tweeted: "earlier this year, Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill to ban proxy voting for members of Congress. Today, she [voted] by proxy while vacationing in Costa Rica."

Greene's spokesperson Nick Dyer told Newsweek on Saturday that the congresswoman and her family always take a trip together during Christmas time and that this year was "extra important."

"This week, MTG not only did her job as Congresswoman, but she also did her most important job: being a Mom. She's spending much-needed and much-deserved quality time with her children and their father," Dyer said. "All she's done is follow Nancy Pelosi's rules and she's happy she could proudly vote NO to the $1.7 trillion Omnimonster."

Meanwhile, Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, urged Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, to call Greene a "liar" after Roy told Fox News on Friday that many lawmakers will not be present to vote for the omnibus bill. Roy added that they will vote by proxy as they cite COVID concerns when they are actually on Christmas vacation.

"Half of this body is not even going to be here. And they're lying, they're lying on forms saying that they're voting by proxy for COVID, and it's a lie," Roy said.

"Why don't you call @RepMTG a liar to her face," Swalwell said, addressing Roy in a tweet.

Proxy voting is a COVID-related procedure that was originally introduced to allow lawmakers to skip sessions in Washington, D.C., to curb the spread of the virus. However, it has been used for reasons not-related to the pandemic. A little more than 200 House Representatives voted by proxy on Thursday.

Though Greene took advantage of this procedure, she heavily criticized it in the past and introduced a bill in March to scrap the practice, according to Business Insider. "Now that COVID is over and we're back to normal life, Congresswoman Greene is ready to end proxy voting," Greene's spokesman Nick Dyer told the outlet in May.

Update 12/24/2022, 2:45 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comments from Nick Dyer, Greene's spokesperson.