CNN host Jake Tapper pressed Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett Sunday regarding her recent clash with Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene during a GOP Oversight Committee hearing this week.
Crockett appeared on “State of the Union” to discuss her viral blow up with Greene at an Oversight Committee hearing late Thursday night as lawmakers were voting on whether or not to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. During the hearing, Greene made a comment about Crockett’s eyelashes, sending the meeting into a tailspin that eventually led to Crockett making a comment in reference to Greene as she called out her “beach blonde, bad built, butch body.” (RELATED: ‘Don’t Tell Me To Calm Down!’: GOP Oversight Committee Hearing Turns Into Absolute Chaos)
“You‘ve really embraced what you said. You‘re printing it on swag, I think we have an image of the shirt here that you‘re selling to help raise money to elect Democrats. How would you respond to say it‘s inappropriate to respond to an attack on somebody‘s physical appearance. You hear the congresswoman AOC say you shouldn‘t be attacking somebody‘s physical appearance, but then you did the same thing. You attack her physical [appearance],” Tapper stated.
“So to be clear, what I asked for was clarification on the ruling. If her words were taken down, that meant that she was going to have to leave the committee for the evening, which actually would have helped everybody out because the source of the chaos is always Marjorie Taylor Greene. But the chairman was concerned about his votes. He was concerned about whether or not he will be able to move forward with contempt,” Crockett stated.
“So therefore, I’m like, ‘Well what are we doing?’ What are the parameters? And I generally wanted to know, so I did not state anything to her. I specifically asked a question and I didn‘t even mention her name. So it was for clarification and that‘s what I asked for. And he obviously didn‘t hear me.”
Tapper continued to push back on the Democratic Texas representative, noting that while he wouldn’t dispute that Greene began the argument, Crockett came back at her a “thousand-fold.” Crockett stated that not only did she not regret her comment, but she called out supporters of former President Donald Trump, claiming that they don’t “respect rules” or the law.
“Okay, yeah. And I hear that. But she went after your appearance and then like you went back at her a thousand-fold,” Tapper pushed back.
“I did. In a very lawyerly way,” Crockett responded.
“But do you — obviously she started it, I‘m not disputing that, but do you regret that at all?” Tapper questioned.
“I don‘t because here‘s the thing. I signed up to be a member of Congress. That didn‘t mean that I was supposed to walk into a position where I‘m going to walk in and be disrespected. It‘s already a hostile work environment being there and we do have rules,” Crockett stated.
“The problem with MAGA is that MAGA does not respect rules nor do they respect the law. That is exactly why they‘re all running up to Trump‘s trial because he‘s in trouble, not because of some big conspiracy by the Biden Administration. He‘s in trouble because he fails to respect the law. The reason that the Supreme Court right now is debating whether or not Trump can commit crimes or any president can commit crimes and then be let off is because they have no respect for law. The party of law and order is gone at this point in time.”
Following Greene’s comments regarding Crockett, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumped in the disagreement to call for Greene’s words to be stricken from the record. While the dispute between the two sides of the aisle carried on for a lengthy amount of time, the over three-hour hearing eventually wrapped up with the committee pushing to hold Garland in contempt, ending with a 24-20 vote.
As Garland still hasn’t handed over the audio recording of former special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden to Congress, both the House Judiciary and Oversight panels have agreed to hold the attorney general in contempt. It is unclear as of now when the issue will be brought to the full House for a vote.