Georgia Republican shrugs off suggestion
On September 28, as the prospect of a federal government shutdown loomed large, a significant number of House Republicans saw fit to spend the day in the first Oversight Committee meeting to consider whether evidence exists to impeach President Joe Biden.
The timing of the meeting - in the closing days for the House of Representatives to agree a government funding bill - was far from ideal, but it was clear that Democrats in the Oversight Committee hearing weren't about to let the Republican contingent get away without realizing the consequences of the approaching shutdown.
In an angry statement, Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Summer Lee was keen to let some of the more-outspoken MAGA-Republicans know the exact impact of their actions, for their constituents.
Specifically, Rep. Lee was armed with statistics about the number of government employees from the various districts served by Republican Representatives, whose paychecks will be delayed by a government shutdown:
Amongst the districts quoted, was Marjorie Taylor-Greene's in Georgia, where Lee claimed that over 6,000 constituents will be affected.
MTG called-out for conduct during the committee meeting
Georgia's MTG was amongst the more vocal of contributors to the meeting and she went to her customary lengths to ensure air-time for herself as she gave a hyperbolic account of the supposed evidence to support the impeachment of Joe Biden. So outspoken was MTG, that on several occasions the chair of the session had to caution her for failing to observe protocol.
In response to Rep. Lee, Taylor-Greene shouted what appeared to be a petulant and unsubstantiated remark:
"Democrats are the party of shutdowns. You guys love shutdowns."
The Georgia Republican is likely accustomed to being pulled-up on matters of decorum. In another committee meeting earlier this year, she was cautioned by the Republican chair of the session after she abruptly interrupted Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mid-testimony, calling him a "liar".
At that point the GOP chair consulted with colleagues and decided to sanction Georgia's Taylor-Greene, blocking her from participating further in the session. Her comments were also struck from the record.
Democrats destroy credibility of impeachment enquiry
By any assessment it seems that House Republicans won't consider the first impeachment enquiry to be successful, especially since figures like Summer Lee and other Democrats have cast doubt over the legitimacy of the enquiry, and also the strength of evidence that exists to impeach President Biden.
Besides comments from Representatives Lee, Raskin and Moskowitz, there were other outspoken critics within the Democratic party including New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - herself the subject of a long-running feud with Georgia's Marjorie Taylor-Greene.
One of the most vocal critics of the proceedings aside from Jamie Raskin, was Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas. As she put it:
“I can’t seem to find the crime and no one has testified what crime they believe the president of the United States has committed.”
With a government shutdown looking all but inevitable, it seems likely that Republicans like Marjorie Taylor-Greene may actually have to start dealing with the backlash from that, rather than focusing on trying to impeach Joe Biden.
Do you think that Georgia's Marjorie Taylor-Greene should be doing more to serve the people of Georgia rather than trying to pursue President Biden? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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