Yahoo Finance AOC Calls Marjorie Taylor Greene “Deeply Unwell” After GA Rep.’s Repeated Attempts At Confrontation
UPDATED with latest: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has finally responded to repeated attempts by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to confront her.
Interviewed on the street outside the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez said on Friday, “This is a woman that’s deeply unwell, um, and clearly needs some help.”
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Of Greene’s repeated attempts to engage her, Ocasio-Cortez said, “Her fixation has lasted several years now. At this point, the depth of that unwellness has raised concerns for other members, as well.”
The New York Congresswoman continued by suggesting a professional evaluation for Greene: “This is an assessment that needs to be made by the proper professionals.” You can watch video of the interview here.
According to The Washington Post, two reporters this week witnessed Greene outside the House chamber attempting to confront Ocasio-Cortez, shouting at her, “You don’t care about the American people! Why do you support terrorists and antifa?”
Ocasio-Cortez did not stop to respond, but afterward said, “I used to work as a bartender. These are the kinds of people that I threw out of bars all the time.” That was before a video of Greene from 2019 came to light.
AOC says of MTG: “I used to work as a bartender. These are the kinds of people that I threw out of bars all the time.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 13, 2021
As the Post reported, it was the latest in a line of incidents in which Greene has targeted Ocasio-Cortez.
On Friday, CNN ran a clip from a visit that Greene made to the Capitol in 2019 before she was elected. Greene is shown talking through a mailbox of Ocasio-Cortez’s office, the door to which was apparently locked.
“If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper, and come out and be able to talk to American citizens,” Greene is shown saying through the mail slot. She had also said that she did “not support your socialist policies and I do not support your murderous abortion policies.”
According to CNN, the 2019 video was from Greene’s Facebook Live that has been deleted. But CNN’s KFile unit saved it.
With Greene was Anthony Aguero, who was among those who entered the Capitol building during the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to CNN.
The video also shows another companion with Greene taunting her staff through the mailbox slot. As they leave, Greene says, “Bye, bye little baby girl.” The release of the video, coupled with this week’s attempted confrontation at the Capitol seem to have prompted the new remarks from Ocasio-Cortez.
Greene was stripped of her committee assignments earlier this year for extremist remarks, with 11 Republicans joining Democrats in the vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the time that GOP leadership should have acted against Greene, while House Republican leadership said that the sanction was an infringement on the rights of the minority party.
PREVIOUSLY at 11:30 a.m.: The behavior of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is once again in the spotlight following an attempted confrontation with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and, on Friday, CNN’s release of a newly unearthed video.
The incidents have put the focus on congressional leaders who, in the words of John Kasich, a CNN commentator and former congressman, are supposed “to monitor their own members.”
In the clip, from a visit that Greene made to the Capitol in 2019 before she was elected, she is shown talking through a mailbox of Ocasio-Cortez’s office, which apparently was locked.
“If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper, and come out and be able to talk to American citizens,” Greene is shown saying through the mail slot. She had also said that she did “not support your socialist policies and I do not support your murderous abortion policies.”
According to CNN, the video was from Greene’s Facebook Live that has been deleted. But CNN’s KFile unit saved it.
With Greene was Anthony Aguero, who was among those who entered the Capitol building during the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to CNN.
The video also shows another companion with Greene taunting her staff through the mailbox slot. As they leave, Greene says, “Bye, bye little baby girl.”
New: A since-deleted video from 2019 shows MTG harassing @AOC's office through a locked door. Calling her "crazy eyes" and telling her through the office's mailbox slot to "get rid of your diaper" while telling the office to open the door and come out. https://t.co/QgcJucs4o8 pic.twitter.com/ccTufF90Z9
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) May 14, 2021
The video took on new resonance because of an incident earlier this week. According to The Washington Post, two reporters this week witnessed Greene outside the House chamber, attempting to confront Ocasio-Cortez and shouted at her, “You don’t care about the American people! Why do you support terrorists and antifa?”
Ocasio-Cortez did not stop to respond. As the Post reported, it was the latest in a line of incidents in which Greene has targeted Ocasio-Cortez. Greene was stripped of her committee assignments earlier this year for extremist remarks, with 11 Republicans joining with Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the time that GOP leadership should have acted against Greene, while House Republican leadership said that the sanction was an infringement on the rights of the minority party.
So far, GOP leaders have not addressed the latest Greene incident, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that it was “beneath the dignity for a person serving in the Congress of the United States.”
Ocasio-Cortez said that Greene was “deeply unwell” and “clearly needs help.”
Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, “The fact that Kevin McCarthy, the House @GOPLeader, stripped Justin Amash of all committee seats for criticizing Trump, but has worked to protect this person from consequences (including pretending he doesn’t see it) tells you this is happening with the support of GOP leadership.”
The fact that Kevin McCarthy, the House @GOPLeader, stripped Justin Amash of all committee seats for criticizing Trump, but has worked to protect this person from consequences (including pretending he doesn’t see it) tells you this is happening with the support of GOP leadership. https://t.co/10OnclroLV
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 14, 2021
Greene, meanwhile, told reporters the Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) once screamed at her in a House tunnel to put on a mask, and that Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) “shoulder checked” her at the Capitol on Thursday. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) yelled at a member of her staff when the staffer told the congressman that he didn’t have to wear a mask anymore, per President Joe Biden’s announcement, Greene said. “The Democrats are the party of aggression and violence,” she said.
On Twitter, Swalwell wrote, “I had a mask on as I stepped off the Floor. An aide with @mtgreenee yelled at me to take my mask off. No one should be bullied for wearing a mask. So I told the bully what I thought of his order. Predictably, he went speechless. I regret I wasn’t more explicit.”
The takeaway: Short of new mandates from congressional leadership, expect more drama to come.
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