‘You’re a joke’: Greene clashes with Cheney, Raskin on House floor

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), tangled with two members of the Jan. 6 committee on the House floor Thursday, getting into an impromptu shouting match over Black Lives Matter and a wild conspiracy theory about Jewish space lasers starting California wildfires. 

Greene, a top Trump loyalist, crossed the aisle and approached Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) as voting began on a resolution holding a former adviser of former President Trump, Stephen Bannon, in contempt for defying panel subpoenas.

Greene first pressed Raskin — who led the Democrats’ prosecution of Trump during his impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 attack — asking him when he would investigate the violence surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests, according to Raskin.

“Like with Kyle Rittenhouse who went and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters?” Raskin replied to her. “I’m sure there will be an opportunity for us to get to that.”

“This is a joke,” Greene said, her voice rising, referring to the Jan. 6 investigation and the Bannon contempt vote. “Why don’t you investigate something people actually care about?”

Cheney shot back that Greene was “a joke” and that she should be focusing on Jewish space lasers, a reference to a conspiracy theory Greene previously had promoted on Facebook blaming “space lasers” controlled by a powerful Jewish family for starting wildfires in California. 

“I never said that! You’re done. You’re a joke!” Greene yelled at Cheney, according to CNN. “Why don’t you go investigate something that matters to the American people?”

Greene “seemed to have some kind of ancient beef with the former chair of the House Republican Conference, Liz Cheney, over the Jewish space lasers thing or something like that,” Raskin said, summarizing the bitter exchange. “And she denied that she’d ever said that and blamed that on the mainstream media.” 

Just a day earlier, Greene had railed against Cheney in an interview with The Hill after the Wyoming Republican suggested that Trump had been involved in the planning of the Capitol attack. 

“Liz Cheney is a liar, and you can quote me on that,” Greene told The Hill. “She’s a liar and she’s only serving her own interests, which is to tear Trump down. She’s a liar. It’s a scam. It’s a witch hunt. It’s a joke committee, and I think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.” 

“She’s just jealous and she hates Trump,” Greene added. “Nobody cares about Liz Cheney. I think that’s the biggest story — Nobody cares about Liz Cheney or their stupid committee.” 

After Thursday’s clash, Greene told her side of the story.

“I told them they’re a joke. This whole thing is a waste. They don’t care about the American people, the national security crisis at the border, our nearly $30 trillion debt,” Greene told The Hill. “They don’t care about all the jobs people are losing. They don’t care about the walkouts with vaccine mandates.”

“They just want to go on and on about the riot and then lie to everyone and call it an insurrection,” Greene said.

Five people, including one Capitol Police officer, died in relation to the violent attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. More than 140 police officers were injured that day.