‘Beyond the pale’: Pelosi says that House ethics committee should ‘probably’ investigate Marjorie Taylor Greene over AOC confrontation

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes that a “verbal assault and real abuse” by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., toward Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., should “probably” be investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

“It’s so beyond the pale of anything that is in keeping with bringing honor to the House or not bringing dishonor to the House. It’s so beyond the pale that you wonder that is probably a matter for the Ethics Committee,” Pelosi said during her weekly press briefing.

While leaving a congressional hearing Wednesday afternoon, Ocasio-Cortez was confronted by Greene, who repeatedly shouted, “Hey Alexandria” to get Ocasio-Cortez’s attention, according to a Washington Post report.

“You don’t care about the American people,” Greene shouted at Ocasio-Cortez. “Why do you support terrorists and antifa?”

When Ocasio-Cortez attempted to evade Greene, the Georgia Republican shouted that Ocasio-Cortez was failing to defend her “radical socialist” views by not confronting her. The New York Democrat turned around once and threw her hands up in frustration at one point after Greene’s goading.

The Ethics Committee is a House panel charged with overseeing the proper behavior of representatives and investigating unethical or improper conduct of House members, including ethics violations.

In January, Ethics Committee Chairman Ted Deutch co-sponsored a resolution calling for Greene to be expelled from Congress for comments she made in 2018 claiming that a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was staged.

In February, Greene was stripped of her committee assignments after Democratic leadership said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had not taken strong enough steps in disciplining Greene for spreading multiple conspiracy theories and levying verbal attacks at fellow members.

Greene responded to Pelosi’s comments supporting an Ethics Committee investigation, arguing that the committee should instead investigate Ocasio-Cortez “for putting Trump admin staff and supporters on lists to destroy their lives and prevent future employment. She threatened the livelihoods of Americans for simply being Republicans,” Greene wrote on Twitter.

Immediately after the insurrection at the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez warned that such violence could happen again without enforcing any “accountability” on officials who encouraged pro-Trump protests contesting the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

“Let’s be very clear,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter in January. “The officials urging for no serious consequences after Wednesday’s attack on our country – including the impeachment, removal, expulsion, and/or indictment of officials who aided, abetted, or incited the attack – are opening the door for it to happen again.”

Pelosi’s comments indicating that the Ethics Committee should investigate Greene’s confrontation of Ocasio-Cortez would not be the first time that House members and watchdog groups have called for investigations of their colleagues in the first months of the 117th Congress.

In January, watchdog groups called for ethics and criminal investigations into the conduct of Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

In March, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called for Ethics Committee investigations into the conduct of GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Gosar after accusing the trio of supporting Capitol rioters in their assault on Congress.

In April, the Ethics Committee announced it was launching investigations into Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Tom Reed, R-N.Y. Gaetz is currently under criminal investigation for engaging in sexual acts with a minor and paid for sex with other adult women. .

Reed is accused of inappropriately touching a female lobbyist four years ago, accusations that derailed his potential bid for New York governor.

Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir.

Source: Read Full Article