Lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got into a heated exchange during a House committee meeting after the Georgia Republican remarked on another legislator’s “fake eyelashes” and “intelligence”.
Just 30 minutes into House Oversight Committee proceedings, Greene lined up Democrat Jasmine Crockett in her crosshairs after straying away from the focus of the meeting.
The House’s rare evening session was supposed to center on resolving whether Attorney General Merrick Garland was to be held in contempt of Congress.
“I’d like to know if any Democrats on the committee are employing Judge [Juan] Merchan’s daughter?” Rep. Greene said, concerning the judge who is overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
“Please tell me what that has to do with Merrick Garland?” Rep. Crockett replied.
“I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” the fiery Georgia Republican said.
Ms Greene’s outburst came during an already-tense hearing, and prompted nearly an hour of disorder in the committee.
Law-makers bickered and exchanged blows, leaving Chairman James Comer unable to contain the furore.
Ms Greene continued to attack a second Democrat, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, after she rebuked the right-wing lawmaker’s “disgusting” and “unacceptable” remarks about Ms Crockett.
“How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?” Ms Ocasio-Cortez responded to Greene.
The Republican taunted the progressive Democrat asking whether her feelings had been hurt.
“Oh girl, oh baby girl, don’t even play,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez retorted, leading to her counterpart mockingly adding: “Oh really, baby girl?”
The back-and-fourth continued, with Ms Greene agreeing to strike her words from the record. However, she did not agree to apologise to Ms Crockett, which caused further anger in the Democratic camp.
When asked, Ms Ocasio-Cortez refused to enter a debate with Ms Greene, which resulted in the Republican’s final damning remark: “Yeah, you don’t have enough intelligence.”
Mr Comer concurred that Ms Greene’s insult ultimately did not violate House rules, leaving Ms Crockett scratching her head at the ruling.
“If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blond, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?” Rep Crockett asked the chairman.
After further tiffs, the hearing began to simmer down with the panel voting to allow Ms Greene to continue speaking.
Nearly an hour after the hearing was derailed, the committee got back to the focal point of the meeting: whether Mr Garland should be held in contempt of Congress.
