House committee meeting turns into chaos amid personal insults

WASHINGTON – Criticism of one member’s “false eyelashes” and another’s intelligence. A question about discussing a member’s “poorly built, bleached blonde body.”

A House Oversight Committee meeting Thursday night descended into chaos amid personal attacks and partisan bickering in a rare late-night session that was supposed to focus on a resolution recommending the Attorney General Merrick Garland to be held in contempt of Congress.

The already tense hearing was derailed when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., responded to the congresswoman’s question. Jasmine CrockettD-Texas, saying, “I think your false eyelashes are getting in the way of what you’re reading.”

Democrats, led by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, immediately moved to expunge Greene’s words from the record and make her apologize to Crockett.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez said during cross-talk. “How dare you attack another person’s physical appearance?”

Greene taunted Ocasio-Cortez, asking, “Are your feelings hurt?”

“Oh, girl? Girl,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “Don’t even joke.”

Greene lashed out at a second member just minutes after she criticized Crockett, saying Ocasio-Cortez didn’t have “enough intelligence” for a debate.

Greene asked Ocasio-Cortez, “Why don’t you debate me?”

Ocasio-Cortez responded that she thought “it’s pretty self-evident.”

“You don’t have enough intelligence,” Greene said as members of Congress audibly groaned at her attack.

Greene agreed to attack Crockett but steadfastly refused to apologize for the night’s attacks, declaring, “You’ll never get an apology from me.”

Amid repeated demands from Democrats to expunge Greene’s words from the record and force her to apologize, Comer ultimately ruled that Greene’s insult of Crockett did not violate House rules against engaging in “personalities” during the debate. When a member of the Democratic ranking Jamie Raskin of Maryland attempted to appeal the ruling, Republicans offered a motion to delay or nullify his appeal.

After the vote, Crockett asked Comer for clarification to understand his decision on personal attacks on members of Congress.

“I’m just curious, just to better understand your decision,” Crockett said. “If someone on this committee starts talking about someone’s blond, poorly built body, that wouldn’t be character engagement, right?”

Chaos erupted again, with one member instructing Crockett to “calm down.”

“I have two hearing aids. I’m very deaf,” said committee chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., after the crosstalk took over. “I don’t understand – everyone is screaming. I’m doing the best I can.”

After Comer agreed to attack Greene’s insult of Ocasio-Cortez, Democrats sought to enforce committee rules that would have barred Greene from speaking during the rest of the hearing. Republicans voted to allow her to speak.

Comer eventually called a brief recess amid debate over questions about a rule for members who had comments deleted from the record but wanted to speak. Upon his return, he reminded members to observe “the standard of decorum in the House.”

Greene was ultimately recognized for speaking for more than four minutes, during which she reiterated that she would not apologize.

“I will not apologize for my words and I will not change them,” she said.

Nearly an hour after the hearing’s failure, the committee returned to debating whether Garland should be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to deliver audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur about the handling of classified documents.

Tensions were already high after a long day, with Republicans peppering Raskin’s opening comments with interruptions.

The meeting was originally scheduled for 11am, but was moved to 8pm after several committee members traveled to New York to attend the event. trial of former president Donald Trump.

The commission voted 24-20 along party lines to recommend contempt of Garland after the contentious meeting. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office has not yet said when it would introduce the contempt resolution to the House floor.

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with