Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was shut down from speaking further by a member of her own party during her outburst at Wednesday's House Homeland Security Committee hearing in which she called Democratic Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a “liar.”
The far-right conspiracy theorist broke House rules with her disparaging remark during her enraged rant against Democratic President Joe Biden's border policies.
She started her allotted five minutes by slamming Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell and accusing him of having “a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy."
Her allegation concerning Swalwell's alleged affair with suspected Chinese agent Fang Fang was an emotional response to Swalwell accusing Greene of “anti-police rhetoric” and producing a printed tweet she wrote promoting “Defund the FBI” merchandise in response to bureau bias.
New York Democrat Daniel Goldman requested a move to "take her words down," adding it was “Completely inappropriate!”
When House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green–a Republican Tennessee Representative–asked Goldman to clarify which words he would like to have deleted from hearing records, Goldman replied:
“Everything that the gentlelady from Georgia has said.”
But Green demanded:
“No, you need to be more specific."
When Goldman suggested the accusations of the affair with a Chines spy be removed, Goldman declared minutes later:
“The chair rules that those words that were spoken are not going to be stricken from the record.”
This was followed by MTG laying into Mayorkas, who was testifying before the committee, and accusing him of being responsible for Americans overdosing on fentanyl.
She demanded answers from Mayorkas and bellowed:
“How many more people do we have to watch die?"
"How long are you going to continue this outrage, complete outrage, where China is poisoning America’s children?”
Mayorkas assured MTG that the agency was not letting it "go on" and were fighting it.
But she interrupted him mid-sentence and called him an outright "liar."
“You’re a liar. You are letting this go on (and) the numbers prove it."
"You can’t lie about the fact, Secretary Mayorkas, while you live in denial and sit over there with this attitude that you’re doing everything right."
"You are killing Americans with your policies."
Her meltdown prompted Democratic Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson to have her words "taken down," citing a violation of the House rules of decorum.
"We can disagree," said Thompson.
"But just the fact that we have people watching, you don't have to call a witness a 'liar.'"
Thompson added that the panel had "a history of being a bipartisan committee that work on solutions”.
"We’ve gotten to the point of the language that we’re using is not the kind of language that historically we use as members of this committee."
“There’s a way that we are to conduct ourselves and what I’m hearing is not how a majority of this committee conducts business and we can do better."
When Chairman Green asked if MTG would retract her statements, she refused to do so.
Green then immediately ruled that MTG violated House rules and noted:
“It’s pretty clear that the rules state you can’t impugn someone’s character, identifying or calling someone a liar is unacceptable in this committee, and I make the ruling that we strike those words."
MTG was no longer able to continue with her grilling of Mayorkas as Green declared she was “no longer recognized,” which meant she was barred from speaking under House rules for the rest of Wednesday's hearing.
People praised the GOP Chairman for taking a stance against MTG.
A spokesperson close to Green said that the Chairman was furious over MTG's belligerent display.
They also mentioned Green planned on privately reprimanding MTG and would also encourage Kevin McCarthy–who assigned MTG to the Committee after she supported the fellow Republican's bid to become House Speaker–to remove her from the Committee if she had another outburst again.
