Marjorie Greene Gets Embarrassed At 1st House Oversight Hearing

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During what was her first public appearance at a hearing as part of her new role on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) decided for some godforsaken reason that she’d complain about outrage expressed about the recent death of Memphis resident Tyre Nichols, although her spectacle didn’t end there.

Nichols was beaten by several officers, who are now charged with murder, and Greene insisted it wasn’t racism, since those originally announced as charged are Black. The idea that a system of policing could represent a racist approach to dealing with marginalized communities no matter the racial backgrounds of the individuals participating in that system as cops isn’t difficult to understand, it would seem. Apart from that, who decides to be the person going “well, actually…” in response to outrage over someone’s violent attack? She didn’t stop there, deciding to subsequently complain about Ashli Babbitt, the Capitol riot participant who was shot by an officer while participating in the assault and died. While it is obviously tragic for someone to die, it’s simply an objective fact that Babbitt was participating in violent, criminal activity when she was shot. A traffic stop that Memphis cops escalated into something devastating is simply not the same.

“There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on January 6: Ashli Babbitt,” Greene said, although there’s been no legal finding it was a murder. “Ashli Babbitt has — there’s never been a trial. As a matter of fact, no one has cared about the person that shot and killed her, and no one in this Congress has really addressed that issue. The January 6 committee didn’t address it. And I believe that there are many people that came into the Capitol on January 6 whose civil rights and liberties are being violated, heavily. And this committee will, I hope Mr. Chairman, look into those civil rights abuses, because they’re happening in a jail right here in this city… I’ve been in that jail, and it’s not just the January 6 defendants — pre-trial, by the way — it’s many of the inmates in there, living in horrific conditions.”

Greene also alleged there’s a “two-tier justice system,” echoing complaints about the supposedly unfair treatment of conservatives like the rioters accused of crimes. It’s difficult to engage with someone like Greene on even a real-world issue of due process and the rights of prisoners considering her penchant for disconnecting from reality or using her line of commentary to pretend as though the riot wasn’t actually all that bad, or at least gloss over the basic facts of it.

It’s also untrue that there’s been no credible examination of the circumstances of Babbitt’s death. Justice Department investigators looked into it and decided against charges. A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C., said that a potential offense on which investigators focused would have required intent for a criminal charge, and there simply wasn’t supporting evidence that such was present. Available evidence instead supported the idea the officer was intending to protect members of Congress.

Check out Greene’s comments below: