(NationalUSNews.com) — United States Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) exchanged harsh words during a hearing regarding whether Congress should hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt. The heated exchange occurred while the House Oversight Committee held a hearing about Garland, stemming from his refusal to release audio of an interview between President Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur.
The hearing lasted about an hour before several attendees, including Greene and AOC, began arguing with one another. The argument started after Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) insulted Greene, asking her if she knew why the committee was meeting. Greene responded with a personal insult aimed at Crockett’s eyelashes, which resulted in other representatives joining the heated back and forth, derailing the committee hearing. Representative James Comer (R-Kentucky) tried to restore order by asking the hearing’s attendees to calm down and avoid personal insults, to no avail.
Shortly after Greene and Crockett’s brief exchange, AOC demanded that the committee record what Greene said because it was “absolutely unacceptable.” According to AOC, Greene insulted Crockett’s physical appearance and should be reprimanded for her comments. Greene immediately responded to AOC’s demands by asking if the New York representative took offense to the comments, to which AOC responded with hostility. Comer briefly halted the hearing so the committee could determine if it would strike Greene’s comments, prompting Green to strike her statement while refusing to apologize voluntarily.
The entire ordeal was caught on camera, and the footage quickly spread across multiple social media websites. Online commenters have been critical of each of the representatives involved in the exchange, notably Greene and Crockett, and have cited the argument as an example of why the House of Representatives encounters frequent roadblocks when pushing legislation. Greene’s refusal to apologize received heavy backlash from online commenters, many of whom felt Greene instigated the entire argument by insulting Crockett’s physical appearance.
Crockett addressed the controversy on her X, formerly Twitter, account and criticized Representative Comer for refusing to reprimand Greene during the committee hearing. Comer serves as the House Oversight Committee’s chairman and has the authority to punish members who speak out of turn or make personal insults, but he refused to exercise his authority during the heated argument between Greene and AOC. Crockett finished her online statement by calling certain members of Congress “mentally deficient” but did not elaborate on who she was referring to.
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