7 months ago
35
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got into a heated exchange during a house committee meeting after the Georgia Republican comment about another legislator’s “fake eyelashes” and “intelligence.”
Just 30 minutes into the House Oversight Committee proceedings, Greene first lined up fellow House member Jasmine Crockett in her crosshairs after straying away from the focus of the meeting.
The House’s rare evening session was supposed to center on resolving whether Attorney General Merrick Garland was to be held in contempt of Congress.
“I’d like to know if any Democrats on the committee are employing Judge [Juan] Merchan’s daughter?,” Ms Greene said on Thursday evening, concerning the judge who is overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
“Please tell me what that has to do with Merrick Garland?,” Ms Crockett replied.
“I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” the fiery Georgia Republican said.
Ms Greene’s outburst came during an already-tense hearing, and prompted nearly an hour of disorder in the committee.
Law-makers bickered and exchanged blows, leaving Chairman James Comer unable to contain the furore.
Ms Greene continued to attack a second Democrat, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, after she rebuked the right-wing lawmaker’s “disgusting” and “unacceptable” remarks about Ms Crockett.
“How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez interjected.
The Republican taunted her fellow congresswoman asking whether her feelings had been hurt.
“Oh girl, oh baby girl, don’t even play,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez retorted, leading to her counterpart mockingly adding: “Oh really, baby girl?”
The back-and-fourth continued, with Ms Greene agreeing to strike her words from the record. However, she did not agree to apologise to Ms Crockett, which caused further anger in the Democrat camp.
When asked, Ms Ocasio-Cortez refused to enter a debate with Ms Greene, which resulted in the Republican’s final damning remark: “Yeah, you don’t have enough intelligence.”
After further tiffs, the hearing began to simmer down with the panel voting to allow Ms Greene to continue speaking.
Nearly an hour after the hearing was derailed, the committee got back to the foal point of the meeting: whether Mr Garland should be held in contempt of Congress.
