Controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is angering Democrats and fellow Republicans alike with her attention-grabbing outbursts as the GOP House of Representatives tries to get traction for its investigations of the Biden Administration.
House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries Thursday said Greene is quickly becoming the “face” of Republican extremism as she distracts attention from the myriad GOP probes.
“MAGA Republicans are showing the American people who they are .. and Exhibit A is Marjorie Taylor Greene,” said the powerful Brooklyn Democrat. “She’s totally out of control. But they don’t care.”
Jeffries spoke out after the Republican chairman of the House committee silenced Greene after she called Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a liar during a public hearing.
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., planned to give Greene a closed-door tongue lashing and complain to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, CNN reported.
Rank-and-file Republican colleagues also pleaded with Greene to tamp down her rhetoric and abide by basic rules of courtesy.
But Greene signaled she has no plans to change her outspoken ways.
“We’ll never implement our conservative agenda if we can’t even call a liar a liar,” she tweeted on her official congressional Twitter account. “Republicans should not let Democrats strike down our words and do their bidding for them.”
Fellow MAGA firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz retweeted Greene’s defiant message, underlining the split in the GOP caucus.
The drama unfolded Tuesday at a committee meeting that Republicans hoped would put Mayorkas on the hot seat for supposedly failing to secure the southern border.
Instead, Greene grabbed the spotlight.
She first attacked Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., over unproven allegations that he had an affair with a Chinese spy.
Then Greene went after Mayorkas, accusing him of preventing the flow of the drug fentanyl into the U.S.
“Congresswoman, let me assure you that we’re not letting it go on. We are fighting this,” Mayorkas said.
Greene interrupted the cabinet member by screaming: “You’re a liar!”
“You are letting this go on, and the numbers prove it,” she added.
When Democrats objected, the chairman agreed that Greene’s outburst violated House rules and should be “taken down.”
Manhattan Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., an expert on congressional procedure, pointed out that “taking down” a lawmaker’s remarks means they can no longer speak at the hearing.
Greene, effectively muzzled, soon walked out of the hearing and later was spotted meeting with McCarthy in his office.
Greene has fresh clout in the GOP stemming from her high-profile support for McCarthy during his tough fight to win the speaker’s gavel while other MAGA stalwarts like Gaetz and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., fought his bid.
She was booted off committee assignments by Democrats in the last Congress. But McCarthy repaid her support in the speaker fight by giving her plum assignments on the Homeland Security and Oversight committees.
