Marjorie Taylor Greene Is In Trouble Again: The Congresswoman’s diatribe, directed at Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, led to the removal of her comments – and a rebuke from the committee chairman of her own party.
What We Know: Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Back in the Headlines
It’s far from a rare thing, especially in high-profile hearings, for members of Congress to grandstand before the cameras. But as with a lot of things, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) took things further than most.
Earlier this week, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the House Homeland Security Committee. When it was Greene’s turn to question him, the hearing took a wild turn.
“[This is] complete outrage, where China is poisoning America’s children,” Greene said in the hearing, poisoning our teenagers, poisoning our young people. How long are you going to let this go on?”
Mayorkas answered that “Congresswoman, let me assure you that we’re not letting it go on, we are fighting the scourge of…,” at which point Greene interrupted him.
“No, I reclaim my time – you’re a liar,” she declared to the secretary.
After that, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) asked to “take the words of the speaker down,” referring to Greene having called Secretary Mayorkas a liar.
Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) then said that “It’s pretty clear that the rules state that you can’t impugn someone’s character. Identifying or calling someone a liar is unacceptable in this committee.”
Having the words “taken down,” per the rules of the committees, means that the member of Congress who used them cannot speak for the remainder of the hearing. When Greene tried to make a “point of personal inquiry,” she was told she could not, and that Greene could not continue to question Mayorkas.
MTG Just Won’t Stop
CNN described the episode as “a stunning example of how Greene’s extreme rhetoric led even members of her own party to shut her down.” The network also reported that Green was “furious” over Greene’s behavior, and that “he would encourage Speaker Kevin McCarthy to remove her from the committee if she ever had an outburst like that again.”
Greene, for her part, later told CNN that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had told her she would not be removed from the committee like she was during her first term in Congress.
“Speaker McCarthy is never going to let that happen,” Greene said, per CNN. She also discussed her communications with the chairman.
“He basically said that we have two different styles so we have a disagreement still about what took place yesterday, but, you know, I am still new to committees so I will make sure I am following the rules, which I do think is important, but at the same time I am still going to keep pushing,” Greene said of Chairman Green.
Earlier in the same hearing, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) showed a tweet from last year from the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, stating “Kanye. Elon. Trump.,” which was deleted following Kanye West’s antisemitism controversy, before asking Mayorkas to denounce “antisemitism and anti-police rhetoric in this country, so that Jewish-Americans and police officers can be safer?” After he did, and the chairman recognized Greene, she stated that “that was quite entertaining, from someone who had a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy.”
It was reported in 2020 that Swalwell was cultivated by a woman who was a Chinese spy around 2014 and was told about it in 2015 by the FBI in a defensive briefing. The original Axios report found that the woman, Christine Fang, had sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors, although it has not been reported or established that she had a relationship of that nature with Swalwell. Swalwell was not accused of anything illegal, although he was removed from the House Intelligence Committee after Republicans took over the House earlier this year.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) had called for the Swalwell spy accusation to be stricken as well, although Chairman Green ruled that it not be.
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
