(NewsNation) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has made a career out of pushing the envelope. But Wednesday she might have gone too far, even for some of her most conservative colleagues.
Greene got so heated during a hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that her remarks were actually stricken from the record by the Republican committee chair and she was cut off by that chair from speaking for the rest of the proceeding.
Republicans surely wanted to put the spotlight on a White House official for his handling of the southern border. But instead, they were left to answer for Marjorie Taylor Greene, who stole the headlines by taking several personal shots. Starting with this comment towards California Democrat Eric Swalwell, who called out Greene for her support of the defund the FBI movement.
Swalwell said: “I’m also concerned about people on this committee and their own anti-police rhetoric. This is a defund the FBI campaign effort.”
Greene replied: “That was quite entertaining from someone that had a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy and everyone knows it.”
Greene, of course, is making a reference to Swalwell’s tie to a Chinese national and alleged spy. A romantic relationship between the two has never been confirmed by anyone in the media.
Democrats on the committee objected to the remark. Greene was asked whether she wanted to recant. She declined and was allowed to continue with her questioning of Mayorkas. At one point, she accused him of not doing enough to combat fentanyl deaths. That’s when the hearing went completely off the rails.
“China is poisoning America’s children, poisoning our teenagers, poisoning our young people. How long are you going to let this go on?” Greene asked Mayorkas.
He replied: “Congresswoman, let me assure you that we’re not letting it go on. We are fighting this.”
Greene said: “I reclaim my time. You’re a liar. You are letting this go on and the numbers prove it. You can’t lie about the facts, Secretary Mayorkas. While you live in denial and sit over there with this attitude that you’re doing everything right, you’re killing Americans with your policies.”
And that was where Greene apparently crossed the GOP line. Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) scolded his fellow conservative.
“In making a ruling on this, it’s pretty clear that the rules state you can’t impugn someone’s character. Identifying or calling someone a liar is unacceptable in this committee. I make the ruling that we strike those words. But when we strike, it does terminate the time of the individual who is speaking. So the gentlelady is no longer recognized,” Green said.
It seems that she can say that Swalwell had an affair with a Chinese spy, she just can’t call anyone a liar.
Let’s be clear. Mark Green, the Homeland Security Committee Chair, is a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus. He’s voted against the Biden administration 93% of the time, giving him a more conservative record than more than 90% of his colleagues.
What’s more: Green is no fan of Mayorkas. The chairman recently bragged to a group of Republican donors about how he plans to pursue the impeachment of Mayorkas starting with Wednesday’s hearing.
But instead of Wednesday’s hearing being all about Mayorkas, it turned into the Marjorie Taylor Greene show. Clearly, the committee was not happy about that.
According to CNN, the chairman was “furious” with Greene’s antics and will push to have her bounced from the committee for good if she has an outburst like that again.
One Republican criticized her on the record. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) told CNN, “The rules about parliamentary code are such so that we can maintain this body and continue to have dialogue that is difficult to have, but you do it without hurling insults.”
Well said.
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