Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s antics in Congress may possibly have hit a new and racist low, the events that transpired at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday resembling a trainwreck that one can’t stop watching.
At 8 p.m, the members of the Republican-led committee congregated for what was supposed to be a debate on whether to hold Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in contempt of Congress. It was the Republicans who had recommended charging Garland, but they were also the reason the hearing gathered so late — instead of sticking around for their jobs, some of them had traveled to Manhattan earlier to show support for Donald Trump in his hush money trial.
It was also a Republican who started what turned into the likes of a bar brawl: Greene, the MAGA conspiracy theorist from Georgia, who used her speaking time to mock Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who is Black.
“I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” Greene said in response to a question from Crockett.
“That’s beneath even you, Ms. Greene,” shot back the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
Greene’s remark also prompted a response from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, D-N.Y. She demanded Greene’s words be “taken down” from the record, which would also mean barring the Georgia lawmaker from speaking for the rest of the session.
“How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said.
“Are your feelings hurt?” Ms. Greene responded.
“Oh baby girl, don’t even play,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez shot back.
Although Greene finally did agree to have her words stricken from the record, she refused to apologize and continued to badger Cortez.
“Why don’t you debate me?” Greene said at one point.
“I think it’s self-evident,” Cortez responded.
“Yeah, you don’t have enough intelligence,” Greene said, a remark that garnered considerable outrage from several Democrats who demanded Greene take back what she said.
“That’s two requests to strike!” Cortez said.
As the fighting continued, Crocket decided she would not let Greene’s remarks go unaddressed herself. She launched her jab in a thinly veiled question, as allowed under committee rules.
“I’m just curious,” Crocket said, “just to better understand your ruling: If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”
“I think my body’s pretty good,” said Greene, who actively posts videos of herself working out, said at one point.
Cortez later took to X to explain her reaction to Greene, plain and simple: “I stand up to bullies, instead of becoming one.”
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