US President Joe Biden took his appreciation of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s backhanded boasts about his first term in office from a viral Twitter one-liner to a full stand-up bit, drawing laughter and some applause on Thursday during a speech in Philadelphia.
“As you may have seen — apparently 40 million people watched — Marjorie Taylor Greene, the very conservative gentlelady from the state of Georgia, said, ‘Biden is doing things like Roosevelt,’” Biden said while he toured the Philly Shipyard.
“I’d never had an endorsement from her before,” the 46th president joked.
Biden was at the Philly Shipyard, speaking to workers and promoting his administration’s efforts to invest in clean energy jobs.
During a speech July 16 at the conservative Turning Point Action conference in Florida, the far-right congresswoman said Biden has been working to finish what President Franklin D Roosevelt began and what President Lyndon B Johnson “expanded on” by investing in social infrastructure and environmental programs.
“Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, labor unions, and he still is working on it,” Greene said.
Soon after her remarks appeared on Twitter, the White House responded, “Caught us. President Biden is working to make life easier for hardworking families.”
Then Biden turned her remarks into a campaign ad on Tuesday, adding to her speech a line that said: “I approve this message.”
In Philadelphia on Thursday, Biden paired his deadpan delivery on Greene with observations that many in the Republican Party are going back to their states and taking credit for funding that their Democratic colleagues supported but they had voted against.
Biden and Greene have sparred before. Greene has introduced impeachment articles against Biden twice and, on Wednesday, Greene showed nude pictures of the president’s son, Hunter Biden, before a House Oversight Committee hearing.
Greene’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.