Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday appeared to confirm that she had a confrontation with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez outside the House chamber, mocking her for threatening to call the police.
“@AOC ‘Ms. Defund The Police’ wants to call the police for security bc she’s afraid of debating with me about her socialist GND,” Ms. Green wrote on Twitter Thursday morning.
“AOC is a fraud & a hypocrite,” the controversial freshman Republican from Georgia tweeted.
The Washington Post reported that Ms. Greene confronted Ms. Ocasio-Cortez as she exited the House chamber Wednesday afternoon.
According to the account, Ms. Greene called out twice, “Hey Alexandria.” When Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did not stop, Ms. Greene picked up her pace and began shouting at her and asking why she supports Antifa.
Ms. Greene also shouted that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a leader of the far-left group of young Congress members known as “The Squad,” was failing to defend her “radical socialist” beliefs by declining to publicly debate her, according to the report.
“You don’t care about the American people,” Ms. Greene reportedly shouted. “Why do you support terrorists and Antifa?”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, did not stop to answer but threw her hands up in the air in exasperation and said something reporters could not hear.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez in a statement to the newspaper, said, “we hope leadership and the Sergeant at Arms will take real steps to make Congress a safe, civil place for all Members and staff — especially as many offices are discussing reopening.”
The statement then made a reference to Rep. Cori Bush’s allegation in May that Ms. Greene berated her while not wearing a mask in the hallway of a House office building. Ms. Bush, Missouri Democrat, moved her office away from Ms. Greene‘s, citing the security of herself and her staff.
Ms. Greene quickly became a controversial figure when she joined Congress. The Democratic-led House stripped her of committee assignments in February, saying the Georgia Republican’s past promotion of conspiracy theories and violence against elected officials crossed a line. Democrats, for example, cited Ms. Greene‘s “liking” of a comment on social media in 2019 that said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ms. Green’s tweet Thursday morning was not her first about the encounter. She tweeted late Wednesday afternoon, “Just talked to @AOC again.”
“You chickened out bc you are too scared to debate me about your Socialist Green New Deal,” the tweet said. “You are also a hate-America terrorist sympathizer. #JihadSquad. Members of Congress do NOT support terrorism & shouldn’t be afraid to debate their legislation.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Illinois Republican, sided with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter.
“While I may not agree with @AOC on issues, I’ve never seen her confront a colleague like this. The house was created to debate emotional issues professionally, and it seems some just want attention or cannot handle their emotions,” he wrote on Twitter, replying to Ms. Greene‘s Thursday morning tweet.
• Kery Murakami can be reached at kmurakami@washingtontimes.com.
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