Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed Jim Acosta as a “liar” after the CNN reporter pressed the congresswoman about a text message the outlet obtained that revealed she’d sent former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a message that Donald Trump enact martial law in the waning days of his presidency and immediately after the 6 January insurrection.
The text messages, part of a trove obtained by the network, provide insight into how some of Trump’s staunchest allies continued to strategise to keep the former US president in the Oval Office, just a little more than week after a violent mob descended on the Capitol in the 6 January insurrection.
In the uncovered text exchange, the Georgia Republican writes to the former White House chief of staff on 17 January that she and some members had been discussing what they could do in the aftermath of the Capitol Riot for the president, who had just three days left in office before Joe Biden would assume the presidency.
“In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law [sic],” she said, misspelling martial law, an alternative plan that others within the Trump administration had floated, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn. “I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tel [sic] him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!”
Mr Acosta, who saddled up next to the congresswoman in Washington on Thursday while walking along the street, took the opportunity to press her about the text messages, which she has repeatedly claimed to not “recall” sending.
“You don’t seem to recall a lot,” he begins in the video clip, which leads Ms Greene to issue her first insult against the CNN anchor. “You know Jim, you have a show and in all fairness you try to present this image of me to your viewers and it’s really just not correct.”
Mr Acosta, staying on topic, again asks her: “Did you send that text asking for the president to declare martial law? Did you do that?”
A back and forth between the pair ensues, with both trying to speak over the other, until they finally agree to pull up the text message exchange in question on Mr Acosta’s phone.
After reading the messages aloud, Ms Greene jumps on the attack and says to the political reporter, “Jim, your problem is you’re lying again right now,” she says, emphasising the part in her text messages that she wrote “I do not know on those things”.
“I’m not lying,” the CNN host interjects, before the far-right congresswoman dials-in to another diatribe against the reporter: “Why won’t you be honest … you know what your problem is you’re just one of those liars on television and people hate it … they can’t stand liars on television.”
Ms Greene, who last Friday became the first member of Congress to publicly testify about the moments leading up to and after the Capitol Riot, was specifically pressed about whether she had discussed martial law with the former president or anyone else within the administration as a possible pathway to keep Trump in the White House, a question that she repeatedly responded with: “I don’t recall”.
Mr Acosta, in an attempt to call the congresswoman out on this repeated refusal to acknowledge the question and defend his own line of questioning, pointed this irony out when he said after being labelled a liar for the fourth time that, “I’m not the one saying, ‘I don’t recall, I don’t recall, I don’t recall’”.
The exchange between the pair ends with neither seeming to get what they wanted from the other, as Mr Acosta continues to explain that he’s simply asking questions and “not trying to lie”, while Ms Greene storms off, calling him a “liar” one last time.
“You know why people don’t like you? Because you’re a liar,” she says before the video cuts away.
In the same trove of text messages released by CNN, the Georgia congresswoman’s messages to Mr Meadows on the day of the insurrection were also revealed, and it shows a politician, who is considered one of the biggest supporters of the then-president’s lie that the election was stolen, begin to break.
“Please tell the President to calm people,” she texted him. “This isn’t the way to solve anything.”
The next day, however, she seems to be singing a different tune, as she begins to posit about potential scapegoats that aren’t tied to the Trump administration.
“It’s not his fault. Antifa was mixed in the crowed [sic] and instigated it, and sadly people followed. But when people try everything and no one listens and nothing works, I guess they think they have no other choice,” she said in the text message.
