Marjorie Taylor Greene caused yet another stir at a hearing on Capitol Hill this week, drawing an angry response from a Democratic member of Congress.
The latest incident occurred during a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security, where lawmakers were discussing an unofficial “challenge coin” being passed around by members of US Customs and Border Protection which appears to glorify a now-infamous image of a mounted border agent striking a fleeing migrant with the back of a horse whip.
The image shocked and disgusted average Americans when it was first publicised, but apparently has been taken as a kind of sinister moment of pride by some in the agency’s ranks where a right-wing culture is thought to be prevalent.
At one moment during the Wednesday evening hearing, Ms Greene was spotted chuckling by a member of the committee, Donald Payne Jr, who called her out.
"It was shocking to depict someone on a horse, with a whip, whipping a human being. And that's funny? That engenders giggles? That's funny – people being whipped. Wow," he admonished the Georgia congresswoman, according to Newsweek.
But Ms Greene denied that she had been laughing about the matter being discussed, and attacked Mr Payne for suggesting otherwise.
"There's no one on this committee who thinks whipping is a laughing matter...I was laughing about something completely unrelated. And it's extremely poor behaviour of people on this committee to continue to attack my character for political points, likely for campaign ads,” she responded.
It’s just the most recent example of Ms Greene and her far-right colleagues in the House clashing or being drawn in to very personal arguments with their Democratic rivals — a far cry from the kind of collegial atmosphere that exists in the Senate and even in the lower chamber some time ago.
She was barred from participating in a previous hearing of the same committee after she went on an abusive tirade against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of lying. The GOP chair of the panel reprimanded her and cut her mic, resulting in her turning her criticism on her own party after the incident occurred.
