House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Thursday that the House Ethics Committee should look into a recent altercation between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., saying the GOP congresswoman used language that amounted to “verbal assault” and “abuse” of her colleague.
Pelosi’s statement comes the day after the Washington Post reported on a verbal confrontation between Greene and Ocasio-Cortez that occurred Wednesday evening.
According to the report, two journalists for the outlet witnessed the New York Democrat depart the House floor late in the afternoon, after which Rep. Greene shouted “Hey, Alexandria” numerous times in order to get her attention.
When Ocasio-Cortez did not stop, Greene reportedly chased after her, shouting epithets like “You don’t care about the American people,” and, “why do you support terrorists and ANTIFA?” The GOP congresswoman also falsely equated Ocasio-Cortez’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement as support for a terrorist organization.
Despite Rep. Greene’s claims, neither ANTIFA — which is not a highly cohesive group, rather a loosely-affiliated collection of anti-fascist activists across the country — nor Black Lives Matter are qualified as terrorist organizations by the federal government.
Greene also reportedly went on to call Rep. Ocasio-Cortez a “chicken” for not agreeing to a public debate on the Green New Deal, a sweeping proposal to address the climate crisis that the New York Democrat introduced in Feb. 2019.
During her weekly press conference on Thursday morning, Pelosi slammed Greene’s remarks as “beyond the pale of anything that is in keeping with bringing honor to the House.”
“This is beneath the dignity of a person serving in the congress of the United States. And is a cause for trauma and fear among members, especially on the heels of an insurrection,” Pelosi said in part, referring to the violent siege of Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.
Pelosi added the altercation “probably is a matter for the Ethics Committee” to investigate, but said she would not make the ultimate decision to do so.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s office similarly called for investigative action following the incident, according to a statement obtained by the Washington Post.
“We hope leadership and the Sergeant at Arms will take real steps to make Congress a safe, civil place for all Members and staff — especially as many offices are discussing reopening,” Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson Lauren Hitt told the outlet. “One Member has already been forced to relocate her office due to Congresswoman Greene’s attacks.”
But Rep. Greene was not deterred, and took to Twitter to continue her attack on Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats.
On Thursday, Greene denied that she screamed at Ocasio-Cortez: "Screaming is what people do when rockets are fired at them like Hamas terrorists are firing into Israel. That's what people do, they scream when that happens. I was talking to AOC saying you need to debate me about the Green New Deal."
Ocasio-Cortez said this conflict is about standing up to bullying: "This isn't even about how I feel. It's that I refuse to allow young women, people of color, people who are standing up for what they believe, to see this kind of intimidation attempts by a person who supports white supremacists in our nation’s capital."
"I used to work as a bartender," she said. "These are the kinds of people that I threw out of bars all the time."
This is hardly the first time that Greene’s heated rhetoric has raised concern among her congressional colleagues. The newly-elected Georgian is well-known for her unwavering support of Donald Trump, and openly embraced Q-Anon theories while running for office.
In early February, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-199 in favor of removing Greene from her assignments on the Budget panel and the Education and Labor Committee. The vote came in response to numerous controversial statements Greene made before her time in Congress, several of which were unearthed or re-circulated online in the past several weeks.
One widely circulated video from 2019 shows Greene harassing Parkland survivor David Hogg at the U.S. Capitol, accusing him of “trying to take away my Second Amendment rights.”
“He has nothing to say because he’s paid to do this,” Greene said after Hogg ignored her. “He’s a coward. He can’t say one word.”
The freshman lawmaker later apologized for "saying all those things that are wrong,” adding: “I think it's good to say when we've done something wrong,” without specifying which of her previous statements she was referring to. Greene later clarified she was “not sorry” for telling Hogg not to advocate for gun control.
She made similar remarks after a gunman opened fire from a Las Vegas hotel room in 2017, killing 58 people at an outdoor music festival, which she suggested was a secret plot to build support for gun control legislation.
“I don’t believe (gunman Stephen Paddock) pulled this off all by himself, and I know most of you don’t either,” Greene said in a video. “What’s the best way to control the people? You have to take away their guns.”
Greene also once suggested in an online video that Pelosi could be executed for treason.
“She’s a traitor to our country, she’s guilty of treason,” Greene says in the video, which CNN first reported. “And it’s, uh, it’s a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.