Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) blew up a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday when she called Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a "liar" and blamed him for fentanyl deaths around the country — an outburst that violates House rules about impugning the character of a witness. The tirade forced Chairman Mark Green, a Republican of Tennessee, to shut down her questioning and bar her from speaking for the rest of the hearing.
According to CNN reporter Melanie Zanona, Republicans behind the scenes are furious with her, and are considering punishments — even including a threat of booting her off the committee for future disruptions.
"GOP tensions flaring over MTG's committee hearing outburst today," tweeted Zanona. "Source close to Chairman Mark Green said he was furious w/ MTG's behavior and planned to privately reprimand her, and also said he'd encourage McCarthy to remove her from the committee if she did that again. But MTG doubled down on her rhetoric, accusing her GOP colleagues of 'doing the bidding' of Dems. She told me she went to [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy’s office to talk about it & said to him: 'I don’t know how we’re ever going to accomplish anything when we can’t call people a liar when they’re lying.'"
According to a CNN report, other Republicans are coming forward to object to her behavior.
"GOP lawmakers on the committee, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN that Greene’s behavior was an unnecessary distraction and complained they had to waste valuable hearing time over the dust-up," said the report. "Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, who called Greene a 'friend' that he has hosted in his district, said the incident was 'unfortunate' and supported the chairman’s decision to silence her. 'I thought he did a good job managing the committee as best as he could. But the sooner we can get back to kind of civility amongst colleagues, the better for everybody,' he told CNN."
Greene, a far-right lawmaker who has embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory in the past, was previously stripped of all her committee assignments by a full vote of the House in the last Congress after it emerged she had promoted social media calls for Democrats to be executed. She was an integral figure in brokering a deal to get McCarthy elected Speaker, after which Republicans restored her committee assignments.
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