Rep. Randy Weber said Monday that Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good has essentially pushed him out of the conservative group over the Texas Republican’s lackluster meeting attendance.
The group of roughly three dozen has weekly meetings that members are expected to attend. In an interview Monday, Weber said it was his understanding that the House Freedom Caucus board had wanted Good (R-Va.) to speak to members who had not gone to meetings frequently enough.
But the leader of the conservative group took it a step further with Weber, the Texan said. Good told him that he would effectively have to reapply through the board if he wanted to continue being a member, according to Weber, who expressed surprise over the decision.
A spokesperson for the Freedom Caucus, which historically does not discuss membership, declined to “comment on membership or internal processes.”
Weber conceded that he has been missing meetings recently, saying he had become “disillusioned” with the group’s procedural tactics in recent months. Weber also expressed reservations with Good’s leadership specifically, saying he had a hard time digesting Good’s decision not to initially support Donald Trump in the presidential race.
“This just isn’t the Freedom Caucus I joined 10 years ago. By any measure, I am one of the most conservative members of Congress,” Weber told POLITICO in an exclusive statement. “Bob Good is anti-Trump and taking this group in a direction I just don’t agree with. We should be standing with President Trump working to strengthen the conservative movement, not tear it apart.”
Meanwhile, Good is talking to other members about their meeting attendance records, according to people familiar with those internal conservations, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Ejections from the group are uncommon. The last member who publicly confirmed they had been kicked out was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) last summer. The group voted to expel her largely because of her frequent and public criticisms of other Freedom Caucus members. Greene, for her part, said earlier this year it was the “best thing that ever happened to me, because I don’t have to sit in those damn meetings anymore and listen to all these men that want to over talk all the women in the room.”
Good only recently ascended to the top spot of the Freedom Caucus after he ran unopposed for the chairmanship in December. But ahead of that vote, internal concerns about his ability to lead the pro-Trump group leaked out publicly, in part because he first backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. And Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) resigned from the House Freedom Caucus board late last year after announcing his opposition to Good’s campaign for chair, though he cited a need to “move policy in the right direction” and not Good’s position on Trump.
Good defended his endorsement of DeSantis by arguing he wasn’t against Trump, but that he wanted a conservative president who could have eight years in office. Since then, he has faced a primary challenge from state Sen. John McGuire, a former Navy SEAL who has loudly backed Trump.
After DeSantis dropped out, Good immediately threw his support behind Trump. But it seemed to be too little, too late for some allies of the presumptive GOP nominee.
In January, just days before Good announced he would back Trump, the former president’s campaign manager Chris LaCivita signaled to a local Virginia news outlet that his operation intended to go after Good.
“Bob Good won’t be electable when we get done with him,” Chris LaCivita told Cardinal News.
