A private feud between two U.S. lawmakers made a splash on social media this week in the fallout of Congress voting to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from a committee, with both officials swinging accusations at the other.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took to Twitter Thursday to accuse her colleague, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of being a “coward” and lying about her on national television.
The Democratic lawmaker swiftly fired back, accusing the Republican of failing to do her job in Congress by spending “almost no time” at her committee hearings.
“I have repeatedly asked you to debate me, but you have been a coward and can’t even respond,” tweeted Greene, R-Georgia. “But you go on CNN and lie about me.”
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She added: “When are you going to be an adult and actually debate me on policy instead of run your mouth like a teenage girl?”
Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, answered: “Hey there! In case you forgot, we sit on the same committee, which debated for the first time this week. I don’t blame you if you forgot. You spent almost no time there.”
Greene personalized the feud in a subsequent tweet, saying Ocasio-Cortez, who was a waitress and bartender before entering public office, was “not even good at that.”
“AOC has never put her degrees to work in the real world to find out half of what they teach you in college are theories that don’t work,” the Georgian wrote.
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She added: “All she did was make a few drinks behind a bar, and she wasn’t even good at that, so she even makes bartenders look bad & I respect bartenders.”
While the two lawmakers often find themselves at odds, the most recent Twitter tiff appears to have started when Ocasio-Cortez accused Greene of “regularly trafficking antisemitic conspiracy theories” and “inciting violence” against U.S. lawmakers.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was engaging in 9/11 conspiracy theories, [House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy appointed her to the Homeland Security Committee,” the Democrat said during a discussion about Republicans voting to remove her Democratic colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar, from her position on the Foreign Relations Committee.
“So, there is really no consistency here,” she continued. “It needs to be very well known that this targeting of Ilhan Omar is because the Republican base finds it easy… and politically self-rewarding.”
On Thursday, Congress approved a resolution to remove Omar from the Foreign Relations Committee, 218 to 211.
“Representative Omar, by her own words, has disqualified herself from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a panel that is viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security,” it said, citing her previous remarks about Israel and Jewish people.
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Omar and several other Democrats, during the debate for resolution and after its passing, accused Republicans of racism.
“I am Muslim, I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa,” Omar said. “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?”
Republicans, including Greene, have claimed Omar’s past comments make her unsuitable to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
While serving in Congress, Omar has accused some Jewish Americans of having “allegiance to a foreign country,” which was perceived as antisemitic.
A month later, Omar seemed to downplay the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, which killed nearly 3,000 people, as “some people did something.”
In 2021, Omar also called Israel an “apartheid state,” and seemed to liken the U.S. and Israel together with terror groups Hamas and the Taliban as political entities that have committed “unthinkable atrocities.”
Omar served as the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations subcommittee, under the Foreign Affairs Committee before her removal.