CNN
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Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett called Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene a “racist” after Thursday night’s tense House Oversight Committee markup quickly devolved into a personal attack. ” he criticized.
The Georgia State Commission was in session to proceed with contempt proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland over his refusal to provide audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Special Counsel Robert Hur. Greene, a Republican, made comments about Crockett’s appearance that sparked outrage. “I think the false eyelashes are ruining what I’m reading,” Green said.
“That’s it, this is racism,” Crockett told reporters Friday about the incident. And she, yesterday, she decided out loud that she was going to be that person. The only difference is that I wasn’t going to just lie down.”
“She’s a racist. I mean, no questions asked about that,” she added.
When asked by CNN’s Abby Phillippe on Friday night why he thought Greene’s comments were racist, Crockett said the Georgia Republican was “basically the nonsense that the MAGA world puts out all the time. It’s just repeating.”
“Throughout my time in Congress, I’ve received so many amazing compliments from MAGA America,” Crockett quipped on “Newsnight.” “When I’m talked about online, they’re like, ‘Oh, look at her hair,’ or ‘Look at her,’ rather than trying to address what I’ve factually explained. I would often try to say, “Look at her nails” or “Look at her eyelashes,” and they would all quote me, all the things I do as a means of beautification. You’ll associate it with quote-unquote “ghetto.” ”
“I’m not the only woman in Congress who wears eyelashes. There are women on the aisle who wear eyelashes as well as hair extensions. But she’s not the only woman on the committee other than me, a Black woman. “I have never felt the need to criticize anyone,” she added.
Reached for comment by CNN earlier Friday, Greene’s office said, “Representative Crockett was the only member to mention color.” On Friday, Mr. Green doubled down on his own comments on social media, slamming criticism from within his own party of his own actions.
“AOC is not intelligent. Jasmine Crockett wears false eyelashes. These are not attacks on individuals. These are just facts,” she said I wrote to X.
House rules state that lawmakers cannot “engage in personalities,” meaning that lawmakers are not allowed to make offensive comments about or towards other lawmakers.
If this occurs, the insulted member may request that the words be removed from the record, in which case the offending member will not be allowed to speak during the remainder of the proceeding.
During markup, a vote to remove Greene’s comments from the record failed and she was allowed to continue speaking.
At Markup, Greene began by asking Democrats on the committee whether any Democrats were hiring the daughter of Judge Juan Machan, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York. Republicans are trying to curry support from President Trump while weakening the case by going after Marchand’s daughter, who has ties to Democrats.
Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, asked Greene, “Do you know what we’re here for?”
Green retorted: “I don’t think you know what you’re here for…I think your false eyelashes are ruining what you’re reading.”
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quickly intervened and forced Greene to retract her remarks.
“That is absolutely unacceptable. Attacking someone else’s appearance is just that,” the New York Democrat said.
After a series of votes in response to Greene’s explosive rhetoric, Crockett made criticisms that appeared to be directed at Republicans.
“I’m just curious, to better understand your ruling. Then when someone on this committee starts talking about someone’s bleach-blond, bad-looking butch body, it’s not about character. “Yes,” Crockett said.
Crockett said Friday that Greene is disingenuous and doesn’t respect the process.
“She has no ability to participate in real discussions and doesn’t know her job. She doesn’t know the issues we’re dealing with when we’re on committees. Instead, she’s a MAGA It’s about the insults and personal attacks that most of them are doing. We need to hire a staff member who can understand the situation so she can actually talk about the substantive things and actually represent the district,” Crockett said. Told.
Crockett also said she is a “grown woman” and has no intention of “taking it lying down.”
“One thing I don’t want to do is have someone disrespect myself as a legitimately elected official. In that case, I’m just going to say, well, that’s okay. And rub it in. I’ll drop it. No, I don’t mean to.
She added: “If they can’t follow the rules, I’ll have to fight for myself.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, an ally of Greene, said Friday it was “unfortunate” that partisan tensions in the House of Representatives escalated into attacks on humanity and chaos during the session.
“I think it’s important for us to maintain civility in this space,” Johnson said, adding: “We must treat each other with dignity and respect, even when we strongly disagree.”
In response, Mr Green took to social media to criticize Mr Johnson, who he tried to oust from the chair earlier this month.
“How ridiculous that the Speaker would talk about etiquette when our opponents have no respect for it.” She wrote on X Friday evening.
Republican and Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee also expressed shock and disgust at the “unacceptable” conduct during the committee meeting.
“That’s not appropriate. None of it is appropriate,” said Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, who sat next to Greene at the hearing. “I mean, the ‘butch body’ and the ‘bleach blonde’ hair, there’s no place for that here anymore. And it’s just disgusting. And I have a little girl. I don’t know if she’s somebody. “I don’t want to hear people insult their looks like that. And yeah, that was pathetic,” he added.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat, criticized Greene’s conduct during the hearing, saying House Republicans’ actions “bring disrepute to the entire organization.”
“When the chairman allowed a distinguished gentleman from Georgia to attack the eyelashes and appearance of other members, at that point the entire meeting went into a hush,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.
