Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) placed a winning $100,000 bid Tuesday for a lip balm stick used by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who also promised a visit with the winner’s donors and supporters.
The auction was held at a GOP conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Tuesday morning, which is not located on Capitol grounds.
Greene placed the $100,000 bid only after McCarthy upped the value of the lip balm by also offering a visit with the winner’s donors and supporters, her office confirmed to The Hill.
Greene also retweeted reporting that other Republican members, including Rep. Jason Smith (Mo.) and Rep. Stephanie Bice (Okla.), also placed bids, and that she would donate the $100,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The Georgia congresswoman was a key ally of McCarthy in his tumultuous fight for the Speaker’s gavel earlier this year, when a faction of Republicans opposed his election.
McCarthy is now seeking to keep his caucus united amid a standoff with the White House over raising the debt ceiling.
The Speaker is coming under heavy pressure from conservatives not to agree to any debt ceiling deal that falls well short of the House-passed legislation cutting $4.8 trillion from the deficit.
Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated Monday that the country will run out of funds to pay its bills by “early June, and potentially as early as June 1.”
However, Republicans in the House are signaling growing skepticism that Yellen’s deadline is really set in stone.
Emily Brooks contributed.