On CNN Saturday, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) tore into Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for lying about a dispute between him and one of her aides over wearing masks.
"You just heard her say a few moments ago her aide politely said something to you, like you were friends and you go way back," said anchor Jim Acosta. "Tell us what happened?"
"I was leaving the House floor," said Swalwell. "You're still required to wear a mask on the House floor. And frankly, Jim, I just forgot to take my mask off when I came out of the building. I love having my mask off now. And Greene's aide said, 'Take your mask off, Congressman.' And I kept walking past. And I thought, you know what, I'm tired of this sh*t, these marauding goons who are going around trying to bully my other colleagues. So I went up to him and asked him who he was, and I said 'Don't tell me what to do' with words you can't say on CNN. And predictably he went speechless."
"This is not the way it works around here," added Swalwell. "I've worn a staff badge and I've worn member pin. And when I was a staffer, I would never talk to a member of Congress like that. My staffers tell me all the time they would love to speak with Marjorie Taylor Greene and tell her what they think of her policies, but there's still decorum and respect, and I think people are just losing patience with Greene."
Watch below:
Eric Swalwell slams "marauding goon" Marjorie Taylor Greene for mask confrontation
www.youtube.com
According to Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse, one need only look at the two-year-old video of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) harassing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to see that she is living the dream her male GOP colleagues wish they could by using being a woman as a shield from accusations of misogyny.
Under a headline reading, "Marjorie Taylor Greene's vapid gender politics," the columnist makes the case that the Georgia Republican believes "I am a woman. So I can get away with this" --- and she may well be right.
With one admirer of Greene writing on Twitter, "It seems to me that some people on these social media platforms the left leaning liberals can't stand a strong conservative woman like Taylor Greene," Hesse makes the case that the image Taylor Greene wants to present is working and Republicans have taken notice.
"In Greene, Trump conservatives have something precious: a 'nasty woman' of their very own, who can behave execrably to other women without being tagged as sexist," she wrote. "Someone without the male baggage of Trump ('grab 'em by the p---y') or Mitch McConnell ('nevertheless, she persisted') or James M. Inhofe (warning an EPA nominee that if she didn't 'behave' he would 'talk to her daddy') or Matt Gaetz (under federal investigation for alleged sex trafficking) or Brett M. Kavanaugh (obvious reasons)."
"She's also willing to say what many conservative men are beginning to learn they definitely should not, which makes her the embodiment of weaponized conservative femininity: She hates liberal women and makes it okay for you to hate them, too. She preaches retrograde beliefs and uses her status as a woman to abracadabra these beliefs into something parroting feminism," Hesse observed.
Adding, "You can see how this party might benefit by having a woman doing most of the talking," Hesse took issue with what comes out of Taylor Greene's mouth when it comes to women.
"But when you're asserting your proud American femininity by yelling at another proud American woman about how much you think she sucks, that should be a warning sign of what your own pride is worth. A woman kneeling outside of another woman's office, calling her a baby and demanding she come out and fight is not a strong woman — she's a desperate woman. She is not demonstrating that her party isn't sexist. She's only showing that everything that comes out of her mouth is junk mail," she concluded.
On Saturday, Business Insider profiled how conspiracy theory-loving, pro-Trump Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has become reviled not just by Democrats, but by a number of Republicans as well.
Greene, according to the report, has become a kind of "Voldemort" of Congress — in that nobody wants to speak her name.
"Greene only burnished her reputation as a Capitol Hill rabble-rouser after she aggressively confronted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just off the House floor Wednesday afternoon and was overheard by reporters berating the New York Democrat for pursuing 'radical socialism,'" said the report. "Even some of Greene's GOP colleagues shied away from answering questions about that interaction. For their part, Democrats sounded like they were flabbergasted. 'I was relieved before this,' Rep. John Yarmuth, who as chairman of the House Budget Committee would have had to work with Greene had she not lost her work assignments, told Insider. 'As far as I can tell, she's here for all the wrong reasons. She is here just to make a show of herself. She's here for the theater.'"
With no committee assignments and no ability to influence legislation, one of Greene's only tactics to get noticed are to repeatedly force votes to adjourn Congress during the middle of business — something even Republicans are frustrated about.
Per the report, Republicans are also fleeing questions about Greene's behavior — even some of the far-right freshmen who were elected alongside her last year.
"Rep. Michael Burgess, a Republican of Texas, told Insider he had not seen any news articles about it," said the report. "When asked about what he thought of not being able to work with Greene on the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican of North Carolina, said this week that he did not take questions from reporters in the halls of Capitol Hill."
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a bill to protect the rights of pregnant workers, but 101 Republican members of Congress who claim to be both "pro-life" and "pro-family" voted against the legislation.
The bill, sponsored by New York Democrat Jerry Nadler, was first introduced 9 years ago. It passed Friday in a 315-101 vote. All the no votes were from Republicans. No Democrat voted no.
The bill was supported by the right wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which called it "a balanced approach that clarifies an employer's obligation to accommodate the known limitations of employees and job applicants that accompany pregnancy."
The website Motherly put it even more simply: "No one should have to choose between their paycheck and a healthy pregnancy."
Democratic Rep. Val Demings of Florida:
Pregnant workers have been fired or discriminated against simply for being pregnant. Today we passed legislation to protect pregnant Americans. This is just basic fairness. Proud to cosponsor this legislation.
— Rep. Val Demings (@RepValDemings) May 14, 2021
Apparently, 101 Republican lawmakers disagree.
Among the more notable Republicans voting "no" were Lauren Boebert (CO), Kevin Brady (TX), Mo Brooks (AL), Ken Buck (CO), Madison Cawthorn (NC), Liz Cheney (WY), Scott DesJarlais (TN), Virginia Foxx (NC), Louie Gohmert (TX), Paul Gosar (AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Jody Hice (GA), Thomas Massie (KY), and Chip Roy (TX).
Here's the list of all the lawmakers who voted against pregnant workers:
Local press in Georgia caught Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) illegally claiming a major tax break.
"A Channel 2 Action News investigation has found that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her husband have two active homestead exemptions, which is against Georgia law. A homestead exemption is a big tax break any Georgia homeowner is entitled to for their primary residence. It is against the law to file for more than one," WSB-TV reported Friday.
"But Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray pulled records showing that the Greenes are getting the tax break on two different homes in two different counties," the network reported.
WSB-TV had a fascinating interaction when it called the controversial Republican's office.
"In a statement, Greene's office told Gray to mind his own business and called it a 'pathetic smear' when he asked them about the homestead exemptions," the network reported. "Greene still owns a North Fulton county home, but also bought a $610,000 house in Floyd County last year in the 14th Congressional district, which she represents."
Reacting to a newly unearthed video from 2019 in which Greene is shown stalking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at her office, McCain wrote on Twitter that the QAnon-loving freshman Georgia lawmaker was making all Republicans look bad with her insane attention-seeking antics.
"You're behaving like an animal -- harassing AOC like this only gives Democrats what they want which is to paint all of us like we're psychotic barbarians!" McCain wrote. "Aside from the fact that this is just abusive and abhorrent behavior from anyone, let alone a sitting member of Congress."
Ocasio-Cortez on Friday shamed House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for not doing more to discipline Greene, after noting that he's disciplined lawmakers such as Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Justin Amash (R-MI) for speaking out against former President Donald Trump.
"The fact that Kevin McCarthy, the House GOP leader, stripped Justin Amash of all committee seats for criticizing Trump, but has worked to protect this person from consequences (including pretending he doesn't see it) tells you this is happening with the support of GOP leadership," she wrote.
According to a tweet from the Hill's Scott Wong, an aide to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) made a comment to Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) in the halls of Congress on Friday afternoon that led to the California Democrat to fire right back with an expletive.
On the day that CNN reported that Taylor Greene's harassment of Democratic lawmakers dates back two years -- and a day after the QAnon lawmaker harassed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) -- Wong tweeted, "Another verbal altercation just happened in the House: MTG's spokesman Nick Dyer told @RepSwalwell: 'Biden says you can take off your mask' Swalwell confronted Dyer, got in his face and according to Dyer, said: 'You don't tell me what to f*cking do!'"
Wong admitted that he didn't hear Swalwell's response, however Swalwell quickly tweeted, "I had a mask on as I stepped off the Floor. An aide with @mtgreenee yelled at me to take my mask off. No one should be bullied for wearing a mask. So I told the bully what I thought of his order. Predictably, he went speechless. I regret I wasn't more explicit."
Greene then accused Swalwell of chasing the aide in question. "Eric Swalwell chased my staffer into the Captiol [sic], cornered him and exploded in anger inches from his face," the congresswoman claimed.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) says her Republican nemesis from Georgia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, is "deeply unwell. And clearly needs help."
AOC's comments come after a 38-minute video was unearthed Friday that shows Greene in February of 2019 – before being elected to Congress – on Capitol Hill stalking the New York Democrat.
“This is a woman that's deeply unwell. And clearly needs help. And her kind of fixation has lasted for several years now," Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said Friday, as CNN's Manu Raju reports. "At this point I think the depth has raised concerns for other members as well."
The disturbing video also shows Greene talking about other members of "The Squad," saying she wants to speak with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Both Congresswomen are Muslim, and Greene says that "as a woman" she needs to talk to them because they support "Sharia," and Greene doesn't want to be forced to "wear a burka."
Elsewhere in the video Greene says, as CNN first reported, "We're going to go see, we're going to visit, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Crazy eyes. Crazy eyes. Nutty. Cortez."
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I'm an American citizen. I pay your salary through the taxes that you collect for me through the IRS because I'm a taxpaying citizen of the United States," Greene says.
"So you need to stop being a baby and stop locking your door and come out and face the American citizens that you serve," she says. "If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper and come out and be able to talk to the American citizens. Instead of having to use a flap, a little flap. Sad."
CNN has now uncovered a video that Greene herself posted in 2019, which has since been deleted from her social media accounts, in which she harassed Ocasio-Cortez's office while visiting the Capitol.
"During a February 2019 visit to congressional offices at the US Capitol with associates who include a man who would later enter the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection, Greene... can be seen taunting Ocasio-Cortez's staff outside the congresswoman's locked office by talking through a mailbox slot," reports CNN. "In the video... Greene tells Ocasio-Cortez to 'get rid of your diaper,' referring to the congresswoman's office as a 'day care.'"
Greene in the past has also been caught on camera stalking and harassing school shooting survivor David Hogg, as well as Muslim Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), whom she targeted for taking the oaths of office on the Koran instead of the Bible.
Watch the video below.
Marjorie Taylor Greene visits Congressional offices in February 2019
www.youtube.com
Congresswoman Greene told The Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez "can't call me a bully because I'm trying to talk with her about policy that will change our economy... What she is a coward and a fraud and a fake."
"Ever since Jan. 6 they can't even treat us with respect and we were victims, too," added Greene, who was forced to deny having a role in the insurrection, added. "We didn't cause it. All these lies they say on and on and on. They need to be civil. None of them are civil to me," she said of Democrats.
Greene also attacked reporters, telling Alemany that the "behavior you're exhibiting is exactly the same type of behavior.... Actually, this is far worse."
Alemany says Greene was "equating her yelling at and chasing down" AOC "to engaging in dialogue with reporters on her walk to her car."
Greene continued her attack on reporters when Forbes' Andrew Solender posed a question to her.
"You've been asking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to debate for quite a while. At what point does it become harassment to continue to ask her to do this thing that she keeps rejecting?" he asked.
"At what point does this become harassment?" was her response.
When Solender asked Greene if she is going to continue to ask Ocasio-Cortez to debate her, she replied, "Sure! She should debate me. She should defend socialism to the American people."
According to CNN's Manu Raju, Ocasio-Cortez compared Greene to "people that I threw out of bars all the time" when "I used to work as a bartender."
"So she throws out paying customers? Is that how she feels...?" Greene said when confronted with the quote.
"She's describing the behavior that you exhibited," NBC News' Sahil Kapur explained.
Greene went back to attacking the reporters.
"This behavior you're exhibiting is exactly the same type of behavior," she claimed.
Here's more of Greene talking with reporters, telling AOC through them "you need to debate me," and claiming she is "acting like a child."
Kaiser Health News
Chauncey Devega, Salon
Alex Henderson, AlterNet
Bob Brigham
Bob Brigham
Matthew Chapman
Tom Boggioni
Jordan Green, Staff Reporter
