MTG is 'absolutely' racist, Texas Democrat says after their heated exchange in House

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was "absolutely" being racist during a heated House committee session last week.

The House Oversight Committee met Thursday night to vote on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio recordings of President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur. During the hearing, Greene said to Crockett, “I don’t think you know what you’re here for. I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”

The Texas lawmaker responded on CNN Sunday that she believes the controversial Georgia conservative congresswoman was being intentionally racist by directing the comment at her.

"Women wear makeup, we wear lashes, we wear all types of things to beautify ourselves," Crockett said. "But MAGA has historically been on social media doing the things where they're saying, 'Oh she's Black with lashes and nails and hair, and so she's ghetto.' And so, to me, this was her (Greene) buying into that rhetoric and trying to amplify this for the MAGA crowd."

"So, yeah, I absolutely think she only did it to be racist towards me."

At the time Thursday, Greene's comments led to a heated back-and-forth between herself and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.

“That is absolutely unacceptable," Ocasio-Cortez fired back immediately at Greene. "How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. criticized the conflict on Friday on X, writing, "In the past, I’ve described the U.S. House as The Jerry Springer Show. Today, I’m apologizing to The Jerry Springer Show."

Ocasio-Cortez responded to Fetterman with her own post.

"I understand you likely would not have stood up for your colleague and seem to be confused about racism and misogyny being a 'both sides' issue," the New York lawmaker wrote. "But I stand up to bullies, instead of becoming one."

Fetterman, appearing on CNN on Sunday morning, called Ocasio-Cortez's statement "absurd."

"I was just simply responding to the kind of chaos and everything that Representative Greene started," Fetterman told CNN. "And if everyone on the committee was proud of what they produced, they're entitled to their opinion. Or if they feel that this is the kind of a video that you want to send to a classroom of eighth grade civics students across America, that's their choice."

Crockett told CNN she does not anticipate any repercussions for Greene.

"I think that this speaker should be inclined to try to reign her in after trying to kick him out of his position," Crockett said, referring to Green's failed recent move to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. "But they just let Marjorie do whatever she wants to do."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas Democrat charges MTG as 'racist' following heated House exchange