Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) clashed on May 16 during the House Oversight Committee hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over audio tapes of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s two-day interview with President Joe Biden over his alleged mishandling of classified information.
The verbal altercation grew out of a question asked by Ms. Greene. She wanted to know whether New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump in New York, has worked for any members of the committee.
Earlier in the week, a group of House Republicans attended the trial to show support for the former president, who is facing 34 felony counts over his alleged role in a “hush money” scheme involving adult film performer Stormy Daniels during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Things got more tense when, in response to Ms. Greene’s question, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said, “Please tell me what that has to do with Merrick Garland?”
Ms. Greene then made it personal by criticizing Ms. Crockett’s appearance, calling her out for what she said was her not knowing “what you’re here for.”
“I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” she said.
“That is absolutely unacceptable,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez interjected. “How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person.”
“Are your feelings hurt?” Ms. Greene fired back.
“Oh, girl. Baby girl. Don’t even play,” said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.
“Baby girl? I don’t think so,” replied Ms. Greene.
Ms. Greene refused to apologize.
The House Judiciary Committee had earlier voted 18–15 to advance the resolution. The Oversight Committee did so, too, later on May 16 in a 24–20 vote.
The resolution would need to pass the House before a referral is made to the Justice Department, but whether House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) would bring a resolution to the floor is unclear.
President Biden has asserted executive privilege over the tapes of his two-day interview with Mr. Hur, who was probing the president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Mr. Hur’s report ultimately recommended no charges against the president. One of the stated reasons was Mr. Hur’s assessment of how the chief executive would present before a jury.
“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Mr. Hur wrote.
This assessment sparked intensive scrutiny over the 81-year-old president’s mental acuity. Republicans have accused the White House of deliberately concealing the tapes to avoid embarrassment.
The tapes are at the center of a dispute between House Republicans and Mr. Garland, who has defied subpoenas for them. While the Justice Department has turned over transcripts from the interview, it has refused to provide the tapes, arguing there was no need to do so, while accusing Republicans of wanting them for political reasons.
Mr. Garland, in a May 15 letter to the president, said that the “committee’s needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that the production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.”
President Biden’s counsel on May 16 accused House Republicans of wanting the tapes for political purposes.
“The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal—to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes. Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate,” Ed Siskel, President Biden’s counsel, wrote in a letter to Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan.
