Lawmakers from both parties were supposedly drinking in a committee room on Thursday while a hearing turned ugly with insults like “fake eyelashes” and “bleach blonde bad-built butch body” being thrown around the room.
Some Republicans and Democrats told Politico that they had been drinking that night, but no names were given out.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, was the first to talk about Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat, having “fake eyelashes” at a meeting to decide if US Attorney General Merrick Garland could be held in contempt of Congress.
“I’d like to know if any Democrats on the committee are hiring the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan.” Thursday night, Ms. Greene said about the judge in charge of Donald Trump’s hush money hearing. Judge Merchan has been called too biased by Mr. Trump and other Republicans, who have pointed out that his daughter has worked for Democrats.
“Tell me what that has to do with Marnie Garland,” The new member of the Oversight Committee, Ms. Crockett, asked.
Ms. Greene told her, “I think your fake eyelashes are making it hard for you to read.”
After that, the hearing got out of hand, and Chairman James Comer couldn’t keep it under control for about an hour.
Voter ID Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out against Ms. Greene’s “disgusting” and “unacceptable” comments about Ms. Crockett.
“You jerk, you can’t say bad things about other people” She said, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.
The Republican made fun of her and asked if her feelings were hurt.
“Oh girl, oh baby girl, don’t even play,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez replied. Her opponent responded with a sarcastic “Oh really, baby girl?”
The top Democrat on the committee, Jamie Raskin, also told her she was wrong. “Even you, Ms. Greene, are better than that,” he said.
As the back-and-forth went on, Ms. Greene agreed to have her words taken out of the record. She did not agree to say sorry to Ms. Crockett, though, which made Democrats even more angry.
When asked, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez refused to discuss Ms. Greene, which led to the last and most damning comment from the Republican: “Yeah, you don’t have enough intelligence.”
Mr. Comer said that Ms. Greene’s insult did not break any House rules in the end, which made Ms. Crockett confused.
“If someone on this committee then talks about someone else’s bleach-blonde, badly-built butch body, that’s not talking about personalities, right?” What did she ask the chairman?
“Mr. Comer” didn’t understand her question. He asked, “Uh, what now?”
That made Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna ask that Ms. Crockett’s words be taken out of the record, which made Democrats speak out.
“I’m trying to understand better,” Ms. Crockett said. “Don’t tell me to calm down; you guys talk loud and then can’t handle it. If I make noise about her, you guys are going to have a problem.”
Since December, when they decided to start an impeachment investigation, House Republicans have tried and failed many times to remove Vice President Biden from office.
After the meeting, House Speaker Mike Johnson told the members what to do.
“Even if we strongly disagree, we must treat each other with respect and dignity,” he said. “That idea seems important to me.”
A failed attempt to remove Mr. Johnson was led by Ms. Greene last week. A huge number of Democrats joined with almost all Republicans to support him.
