Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) clashed with CNN anchor Jim Acosta this week over questions about her text messages calling for former President Trump to declare martial law after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a video posted to Twitter by Greene, Acosta is seen walking with her outside the Capitol, first asking if she recalled calling Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a traitor.
“You know Jim, you have a show, and, in all fairness, you try to present this image of me to your viewers and it’s just really not correct,” she says.
“Well, we’re just trying to get some answers,” Acosta replies.
According to text messages provided to the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, on Jan. 17, 2021, three days before President Biden’s inauguration, Greene texted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that members of Congress were suggesting Trump’s final chance to “save our Republic” was to call for “Marshall law,” referring to martial law.
CNN was the first to report on the text messages.
“Did you send a text in asking for the president to declare martial law?” Acosta asked. “Did you do that?”
“I don’t recall those being my text messages,” Greene replied, later accusing him of lying. She adds that she didn’t know whether Trump could have declared martial law, which would have put the military in control of several government functions.
“Why don’t you be honest?” Acosta asked Greene.
“You’re just another one of those liars on television,” she continues. “And people hate it, they hate it. They can’t stand the liars on television.”
Greene at one point asked Acosta to present “the supposed text message,” and he took out his phone and showed Greene the article with her texts.
Acosta quoted her messages until he came to the quote, “I don’t know on those things.”
“Wait, excuse me, stop,” Greene intervened. “‘I don’t know on those things.’ Is that what it says?”
“Why don’t you tell that story?” she asked.
She later denied that the messages were hers.
“You’re lying. You’re a liar. You know why people don’t like you?” Greene asked. “Because you’re a liar. Why do you want to lie on television for your viewers?”
“I’m not trying to lie,” Acosta replied.
“You’re accusing me of something, and then when you read the actual words it tells another story,” she continued. “It tells the truth.”
Greene posted the video to Twitter Thursday, saying that she was “repulsed that people gladly take a paycheck to lie and mischaracterize me” and tagging Acosta.
“I want to think good things about the press, but they behave like this and it makes me sick to my stomach.”
Acosta later quote-tweeted the video Friday morning.
“The congresswoman doesn’t recall if it’s her text but she defends it,” he wrote.