A late-night House committee meeting looked more like a raucous episode of “The Jerry Springer Show,” with partisan bickering out of control and one lawmaker insulting another for wearing “fake eyelashes.”
Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee met Thursday night to vote whether to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over special counsel Robert Hur’s audio recordings of his interviews with President Biden regarding mishandling of classified documents.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, brought up the judge in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial. His daughter has worked for Democratic-aligned groups, and Trump allies believe that undermines his impartiality in the case.
“Please tell me what that has to do with Merrick Garland,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Texas Democrat, said to Ms. Greene.
She asked the conservative firebrand if she knew “what we’re here for,” and Ms. Greene responded: “I don’t think you know what you’re here for. I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
Democrats jumped to Ms. Crockett’s defense, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, calling Ms. Greene’s shot “disgusting.”
“How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?” the Squad star said.
Ms. Greene, who is no friend of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, sarcastically asked, “Are your feelings hurt?”
“Oh, girl? Baby girl, don’t even play,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said dismissively.
Ms. Greene dared the New Yorker to debate her, then said, “You don’t have enough intelligence.”
The panel battled over how to respond to Ms. Greene’s insult and eventually cajoled her into agreeing to strike her comment from the record. But she refused to apologize for what she said.
Ms. Crockett wasn’t satisfied.
In the course of asking why committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, didn’t cite Ms. Greene for her personal attack, which Democrats said was a rules violation, Ms. Crockett played along by ridiculing the Georgian’s appearance.
“I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling,” Crockett said to Mr. Comer. “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?”
The chaos took up an hour of the hearing and dragged out the final vote to hold Mr. Garland in contempt of Congress in a party-line vote of 24-20.
Ms. Greene took to social media Friday to double down on her fiery comments.
“Some people are upset about the scene from the Oversight Committee last night. Well, I’m upset and disgusted pretty much every day at the Democrat controlled DOJ, federal government and Congress in general,” she said. “Pardon me if I don’t talk as nicely as some people would like to hear.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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