AOC worried to be around Marjorie Taylor Greene after she made Capitol hoax claim

Ms Ocasio-Cortez told CBS 'I would hope that Representative Greene shows some reflection. I will feel safer when she does. But if she doesn't, it remains a very tense situation'

Gustaf Kilander
Washington, DC
Friday 05 February 2021 20:27 GMT
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The reactions to Marjorie Taylor Greene's press conference outside the Capitol building the day after she was stripped of her committee assignments were either jubilant or utterly scathing, depending on which side of the aisle was speaking.

During her press conference, Ms Greene said New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "faked her outrage with another hoax", called Missouri Representative Cori Bush a liar and added that the media is "doing a good job of addicting our nation to hate".

Ms Ocasio-Cortez told CBS: "I would hope that Representative Greene shows some reflection. I will feel safer when she does. But if she doesn't, it remains a very tense situation."

Florida representative and one of the most high profile faces of the Trump wing of the Republican Party, Matt Gaetz, appeared to compare the press conference to sex, telling Fox News: “Bravo, Marjorie Taylor Greene, that was so good I almost had to smoke a cigarette afterwards."

“She was policy-focused, she was graceful, I think she pointed out the hypocrisy in the media. Most importantly ... Democrats made Marjorie Taylor Greene certainly the most powerful freshman in Congress, and possibly one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress ... Marjorie is off the proverbial leash right now,” Mr Gaetz added.

Inside Elections reporter Jacob Rubashkin pointed out Ms Greene's contradictory statements by tweeting two of her quotes:

"Greene: 'You know what they did? They actually stripped my district of their voice. They stripped my voters of having representation.'

Also Greene: 'If I was on a committee, I'd be wasting my time because my conservative values wouldn't be heard.'"

Read more: Follow live updates on the Trump post-presidency

Political action committee VoteVets tweeted in response to Ms Greene's statements that "the US Capitol needed '30,000 National Guard troops' because of an armed insurrection from your side that you helped incite. The Trump rioters were not 'good guys with guns' – they were, and are, domestic terrorists".

The president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, Ilyse Hogue, said she hoped that "folks noted how much of Marjorie Taylor Greene's presser was dog-whistling on abortion. Abortion is not and has never been about a medical procedure. It's a trojan horse for an entire anti-democratic agenda about white patriarchal control".

She added: "Don't come at me with the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is a woman. White women have always been instrumental to the political execution of halting social progress and upholding white supremacy. See Phyllis Schlafly. See Kellyanne Conway."

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson told MSNBC: "The Republican Party right now is the cult of Trump, and you heard it from Marjorie Taylor Greene today in her statement, totally lacking in contrition, saying nothing of remorse, when she said the party is Trump's. It doesn't belong to anybody else but him. Until it changes, it's not really a functional conservative political party right now."

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