Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) dismissed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) aggressive confrontation Thursday as on par with the obnoxious behavior of the unruly patrons she used to encounter as a bartender.
On Wednesday, Greene tried to confront Ocasio-Cortez as the two left the House floor, shouting after her that she supported “terrorist” organizations like “antifa” and Black Lives Matter.
“I used to work as a bartender and these are the kinds of people that I threw out of bars all the time,” Ocasio-Cortez quipped to reporters, naming Greene and former Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) who accosted her last year, reportedly calling her a “fucking bitch” as he walked away.
But, she added, she won’t be seen letting Greene intimidate her.
“This isn’t even about how I feel — it’s that I refuse to allow young women, people of color, people who are standing up for what they believe to see this kind of intimidation attempts by a person who supported white supremacists in our nation’s capital,” she said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) mused at her weekly press conference that the episode, which she called “verbal abuse,” “probably is a matter for the Ethics Committee.”
Greene has sought out Ocasio-Cortez before, seemingly fixated on the idea of debating the Green New Deal with her.
“She’d approached the congresswoman one time previously — though this was decidedly an escalation,” Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director Lauren Hitt told TPM. “We do hope the SAA and leadership will take real steps to make the floor a safe, civil place for Members.”
Greene dismissed both Ocasio-Cortez’s safety concerns and the idea of her filing an ethics complaint, saying that she’s “reacting like a child.”
“Talking to her. She says screaming. You know what screaming is? Screaming is what people do when rockets are fired at them like Hamas terrorists are firing into Israel,” Greene told reporters. “That’s what people do, they scream when that happens, I was talking to AOC, saying you need to debate me about the Green New Deal.”
Later on Thursday, Greene and members of her staff accused reporters of harassing her with their questions on the episode.
It’s not clear why Greene thinks Ocasio-Cortez needs to debate her specifically on the legislation, as Greene admitted in a recent tweet that she hadn’t actually read the legislation she’s so ardently against.
Greene has already been stripped of all of her committee assignments because of incendiary social media posts, and prompted one Democrat, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), to move her office after an altercation.
