Personal insults, Greene vs. Boebert and alleged drinking in the Capitol: How one House hearing imploded
Even by the standards of the often chaotic House Oversight Committee, its Thursday night meeting was a mess.
Members of the panel ultimately advanced a contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland on a party-line vote, but the far more striking takeaway was the personal attacks and theatrics lobbed between lawmakers in both parties — as Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) struggled unsuccessfully to gain control for more than an hour.
By far the most contentious moment happened early on, after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) insulted what she called “fake eyelashes” worn by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). That prompted outrage and yells from Democrats — Greene eventually agreed to strike those words from the record but refused to apologize.
“I don’t think you know what you’re here for,” Greene said to Crockett. “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
But that wasn't the end of the jabs. Crockett then, under the guise of a parliamentary inquiry, asked Comer if referring to another member as having “a bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?” — a not-so-subtle jab at Greene.
Comer seemed confused as ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) appeared to try and stifle a laugh. “Uh, what now?” Comer asked. “I have no idea what you just said.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) clapped back that the freshman Democrat was “out of control” and told her to “calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down,” Crockett said. “If I come and talk shit about her, y’all gonna have a problem.”
At another point in the heated back-and-forth, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called Greene’s comment to Crockett “absolutely unacceptable — how dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?”
“Are your feelings hurt? Awww,” Greene replied. “Why don’t you debate me?”
Ocasio-Cortez then replied: “I think it’s pretty self-evident.” And Greene responded: “Yeah, you don’t have enough intelligence,” prompting another request to take the formal step of taking down a record of the personal attack.
When the committee voted to let Greene keep speaking after the lengthy verbal scuffle, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) — who has her own rocky relationship with the Georgian — voted with Democrats.
On Friday morning, members weren't over the embarrassing scene. They lamented how the hearing unfolded the night before, and both Republicans and Democrats acknowledged some members had been drinking that evening.
Some Democrats saw racial motivation behind Greene's attack on Crockett.
"There's no question that Marjorie Taylor Greene uses racist language all the time," said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.). "Jasmine Crockett is a class act — she pushed back when she was pushed multiple times."
Even Speaker Mike Johnson weighed in on the theatrics.
"When we disagree — even vehemently — we have got to treat one another with dignity and respect," he said. "I think it's an important principle."
Luna conceded to reporters that: "I don't think the American people deserved that ... I don't think it should ever elevate to the point of personal insults."
The Greene and Crockett dispute wasn’t the only surreal moment from the hearing. At another moment, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) dramatically read from a Comer fundraising email referencing former President Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York — as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) smiled.
He also offered to do a dramatic reading of President Joe Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur while wearing a Biden mask that, he noted after prompting from a GOP colleague, he could get off Etsy.
“Stand with Comer,” Moskowitz said, reading from the email and prompting cries of “yay” from the GOP side of the room.
The Florida Democrat responded: “You sure about that?”
That wasn’t all. After Garcia displayed a picture of Trump with his eyes closed amid reports of the former president repeatedly falling asleep during his New York trial, Boebert defended the GOP's presumptive nominee. She was among a group of House Republicans who attended the trial earlier in the day, delaying the hearing.
“I think he’s praying, but if he is sleeping, [he] certainly looks pretty as he sleeps,” Boebert said. “I know when I fall asleep on airplanes my mouth kind of drops open. His mouth is kind of tight-lipped, so maybe it’s just a somber moment of thought.”
Even lawmakers who aren’t in the committee got in on the action, calling out from the audience. That got pushback from one member of the panel, who alleged that “we have some members in the room who are drinking inside the hearing room, who are not members of this hearing.”
Jordain Carney and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.