Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are feuding on Twitter, with the two sparring over the new House majority’s controversial committee appointments, including the decision to remove Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee over perceived antisemitic remarks.
The Twitter beef began on Thursday, when Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, slammed GOP leaders for reinstating Ms Greene’s committee placements, which were stripped by Democrats in 2021 owing the Georgia rep’s history of violent threats towards fellow members and conspiratorial remarks.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was engaging in 9/11 conspiracy theories, [House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy appointed her to the Homeland Security Committee,” Rep Ocasio-Cortez told CNN. “So there is really no consistency here and it needs to be very well known that he is targeting of Ilhan Omar because he finds it easy. The Republican base finds it politically self-rewarding.”
(Ms Greene, before she was elected to Congress, once posted a video questioning whether a plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, though later she declared 9/11 “absolutely happened.”)
In response to the CNN interview, Ms Greene attacked Ms Ocasio-Cortez, accusing her of running her mouth “like a teenaged girl.”
“I have repeatedly asked you to debate me, but you have been a coward and can’t even respond," Ms Greene posted.
The dispute continued, with Ms Ocasio-Cortez accusing Ms Greene of spending “almost no time” in Congress doing her committee work.
“In the few minutes you did show up, you claimed one elementary school got *$5 billion dollars* to teach CRT [critical race theory,” the New York Democrat wrote.
From there, things devolved even further, with Ms Greene calling people from Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s native New York “sickos” who abused Covid relief funds to support organisations that hosted drag events.
Ms Omar, the original spark of the debate, has also criticised the House’s decision to remove her, arguing she was unfairly singled out for voicing criticisms of the US-Israel political relationship because she is a Muslim and woman of colour.
“I am an American, an American who was sent here by her constituents to represent them in Congress. A refugee who survived the horrors of a civil war. Someone who spent her childhood in a refugee camp,” she said about the committee decision.
“Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced?”
