Marjorie Taylor Greene won't support her party's choice for House speaker because he has cancer

• House Republicans just narrowly nominated Rep. Steve Scalise to be their candidate for speaker.
• But Marjorie Taylor Greene is withholding her support, citing his cancer diagnosis.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is vowing to oppose her party's nominee for speaker of the House when it comes to a vote on the floor — because he has cancer.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise narrowly clinched the nomination for speaker during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, defeating Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio in a narrow 113-99 vote.

The Georgia Republican, who supported the Trump-endorsed Jordan, said that Scalise's recent multiple myeloma diagnosis, a rare blood cancer, made him less capable of doing the job.

"I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress," Greene wrote on Twitter. "We need a Speaker who is able to put their full efforts into defeating the communist democrats and save America."

Scalise, whose office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, has insisted that he's still capable of doing the job as he seeks treatment.

After his diagnosis in August, he said in a statement that he would be "continuing my work as Majority Leader" and that he would "tackle this with the same strength and energy as I have tackled past challenges." Scalise survived an assassination attempt in 2017.

Greene is not the only holdout. Several hardline House Republicans have said that they will continue to vote for Jordan on the House floor, presumably in a bid to extract concessions from Scalise.

But she is the only lawmaker so far that has publicly made an issue out of Scalise's cancer diagnosis.