One of the unfortunate results of this past election was that while the Republican Party’s attempts at a “red wave” or “red tsunami” were thwarted, they did end up with a slight majority in the House of Representatives. Beyond having to type “Speaker” in front of Kevin McCarthy, the real problem is that abhorrent misanthropes like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar have been put back on oversight committees. This means they get to grandstand during committee hearings, on top of their general grandstanding everywhere else.
On Tuesday, during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas introduced an amendment to reestablish the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The subcommittee began in the 116th Congress in 2019, when the Democratic Party took back leadership of the House under Donald Trump. Rep. Crockett referred to the recent police brutality case and suspected murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis law enforcement.
Crockett’s call for the committee to continue its work was received well by most. Of course, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents Georgia, made sure she could figure out a way to stain the entire proceedings with her special brand of racism and seditious self-aggrandizement.
RELATED STORY: Tyre Nichols’ parents accept invitation to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address
Rep. Greene began with what sounded like a surprising olive branch, saying, “Ms. Crockett, I do agree with you about Tyre Nichols' death. I watched the video and it was tragic and extremely difficult to watch.”
Now, if that’s where this ended, we could all agree to disagree about taxes and big business, while also agreeing that human life shouldn’t be demeaned because of discrimination and the abuses of power in law enforcement. But this is Marjorie Taylor Greene, a woman who mostly lies all of the time about everything, and she wouldn’t be on brand if she weren’t going to add something racist, wrong-headed, and seditious into the mix!
“I would also like to point out,” Greene began, “that city is Democrat-controlled and the five officers that have been arrested and charged are Black, and I don’t think this is an issue of, ah, racism or anything like that. I think the judge and the jury and the trial needs to work out what happened there, but I share that with you.”
Hmmm. Not sure exactly what you think “share” means. Let’s follow some MTG logic here so far: Is it not racist because being “Democrat-controlled” makes things inherently not racist? Would that mean the opposite is true in Republican-controlled areas? Or is it that the cops who killed Nichols were Black that makes it not systemic white supremacy?
It is hard to say, but no worries. If you think Ms. Greene can’t get a little more offensive and wrong-headed, then you haven’t been paying attention to Ms. Greene. She starts by saying, “But I’d like to point something that I hope you share with me.” That’s verbatim. No need for copyediting on that “point something.” [Ed. note: Noted.]
“There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on January 6th.” Yes, that’s right. Political theatre begins as Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was shot while attempting to breach a secured Capitol building wing through a broken hallway door window, by way of her mother, enters the conversation.
Greene proceeded to say that the civil rights and liberties that should be investigated are those of the Jan. 6 insurgents. She gave a vague explanation of how the prison conditions were terrible (fair enough), but forgot to mention how she’s never worried about the civil rights of people in Georgia prisons. (Go figure.)
Let’s all get back up to speed. Ms. Greene believes that what happened to Tyre Nichols is “tragic,” but is not “racism or anything like that,” which means it doesn’t rise to the level of civil rights abuses; but Ashli Babbitt, who was killed before she could be charged with a variety of charges for her part in an attempted coup d’état, does deserve federal civil rights investigations, along with the other people charged in federal court for crimes similar to Babbitt’s.
Tyre Nichols was pulled over for a traffic stop that the police have yet to prove they needed to make in the first place.
Babbitt’s mother was in the committee room while this was happening, and Rep. Lauren Boebert made her way to shake her hand. Welcome to the 118th Congress of the United States of America. Bad theater.
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