marjorie taylor greene alexandria ocasio-cortez
MTG has challenged AOC to a debate on pay-per-view TV over the Green New Deal.
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  • Marjorie Taylor Greene was screaming when she accosted AOC in Congress, a reporter said.
  • Jacqueline Alemany described watching the angry encounter to CNN.
  • Greene had denied that, saying she had merely been "talking" when she ran after AOC.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was indeed screaming when she accosted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Congress, despite Greene's claims she wasn't, according to a reporter who was there..

Greene has denied that she was screaming during an ugly encounter outside the House Chamber, during which per The Washington Post's reporting she pursued Ocasio-Cortez while yelling.

Greene called Ocasio-Cortez' name twice, sped up after her, and said: "You don't care about the American people," the Post reported. "Why do you support terrorists and antifa?"

Ocasio-Cortez, who ignored the whole incident, later released the statement saying that Greene had been "screaming," and called for a "safe, civil" environment for members of the House.

When asked about the incident, Greene told reporters that she had merely been "talking" to Ocasio-Cortez.

"She said 'screaming,'" Greene said. "Do you know what screaming is? That's what people do when rockets are fired at them like Hamas terrorists are firing into Israel ... I was talking to AOC." She added that Ocasio-Cortez was "reacting like a child."

A CNN splitscreen of an anchor interviewing Washington Post reporter Jacqueline Alemany.
CNN interviews The Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany, right, about Marjorie Taylor Greene's stunt with AOC.
CNN

Jacqueline Alemany, one of the reporters who contributed to The Post's report, later contradicted Greene's account. "That is, in fact, not what happened. She was screaming," she told CNN.

She said that she had been "really shocked" by the situation, "so much so that I honestly didn't even have the presence of mind to record the interaction, because I was so taken aback and surprised by Greene's behavior."

She said that the scene was even more aggressive than a 2019 encounter when Greene harassed David Hogg, a teen survivor of the Parkland shooting, asking him why he supports gun control. Footage of that emerged earlier this year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called Greene's behavior towards Ocasio-Cortez "abuse" and "verbal assault," and suggested the Ethics Committee should look into it.

When asked about the incident Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, likened Greene to the sorts of people she used to throw out of her bar.

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