Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed Friday that the GOP-led House Oversight Committee abdicated normal procedures after the panel devolved into mudslinging, sparked by a characteristically bizarre outburst by Marjorie Taylor Greene. In fact, AOC explained, the chaotic House hearing was part of a “structured GOP outcome.”
The committee was holding a markup meeting regarding Republican efforts to advance contempt proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland for refusing to produce confidential recordings between President Biden and special counsel Robert Hur.
During the Thursday night meeting, MTG spontaneously launched into a bizarre line of questioning at her Democratic colleagues, asking if any of them employ the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, a favored attack from Trump that landed him a gag order that conservative politicians have been intentionally circumventing during his hush-money trial.
Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett asked Greene, whose comments had derailed the hearing, “Do you know what we’re here for?” In response, Greene insulted Crockett’s appearance, saying “I don’t think you know what you’re here for. I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
Greene’s attack prompted a response from Ocasio-Cortez, who admonished the far-right loudmouth and unsuccessfully moved to have Greene’s comments struck, calling Greene’s rhetoric “absolutely unacceptable.”
The following day, Ocasio-Cortez took to X (formerly Twitter) to break down how Greene’s outburst overshadowed—and aided—what Ocasio-Cortez describes as a “microcosm of what authoritarians do on a larger scale.”
“AFTER the Republican Chair and GOP members broke official House protocol to allow MTG’s horrific opening silo of rhetoric, they THEN made another change to dispense with the legislative process,” Ocasio-Cortez said on X (formerly Twitter). “THAT part is not getting enough attention.”
In a move Ocasio-Cortez described as “highly unusual and still unclear to me how legitimate it was,” the GOP-led committee vacated both the typical amendment process and legislative debate that follows, moving directly to vote on their own text without allowing for amendments or objections to be heard.
“That’s why this stuff isn’t just all-sides chaos, or mere distraction, or a pox on everyone’s house,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “They WANT you to think this was some random devolution of conduct instead of a structured GOP outcome. We must understand who and what actions created the situation. It matters.”
Thanks to MTG’s meltdown, the vote to initiate contempt proceedings against Garland was successful.
