'Horrendous!': MTG, Democrats Get in Shouting Match on Capitol Steps After Abortion Vote

It’s common for lawmakers to argue out their differences on various political topics in the legislative chamber or even on the debate stage, but a group of onlookers in Washington, DC, on Friday were witness to a shouting match between politicians outside the halls of power.

It wouldn’t be a complete news cycle without Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stirring up controversy on Capitol Hill. On Friday, she vented her fury at a group of Democrats on the national legislature’s southeastern steps

The precipitating incident was the House voting to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would “create a statutory right for health care providers to provide abortion care, and a corresponding right for their patients to receive that care, free from medically unnecessary restrictions that single out abortion and impede access,” according to a website about the bill.

The bill was proposed in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month allowing a Texas anti-abortion law to enter effect, which many abortion access advocates fear is a prelude to the court striking down the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which created the right to an abortion as a function of existing privacy laws.

Greene, a conservative evangelical Christian who staunchly opposes legalized abortion, took affront to the bill and decided to let her liberal colleagues know it - as they posed for a photo op on the steps outside the House following the vote.

.@RepMTG started off by yelling at a group of Democratic women, incl. @IlhanMN @Rep_Stansbury @RepDebDingell @RepHoulahan, prompting them to walk back inside pic.twitter.com/l8DSI7ymHt

— bryan metzger (@metzgov) September 24, 2021

The incident began with Greene yelling not about abortion, but about the migrant housing crisis at the US-Mexico border. “Look at what’s happened out here: the border’s wide open,” she said to a nearby group of Democratic Congresswomen, including Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Melanie Stansburg (D-NM), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), prompting them to simply go back inside the building.

However, Greene was just getting going. Another group of lawmakers and staffers further down the steps were talking and posing for photographs, and the Georgia representative began shouting generic insults such as that their actions are “tearing our country down.”

this was one of several exchanges Greene had with Democrats on the steps. as they were lining up below, Greene got into a spat with another woman over who stood with women more while muttering that “Build Back Better for Women” is a “joke” pic.twitter.com/uIOBii1ya4

— bryan metzger (@metzgov) September 24, 2021

In response, one of the women posing turned to Greene and said, "Congresswoman, I wish you would stand with women," which was all she needed to launch into a full tirade.

"Stand with women? I do! Stand with motherhood, how about that?" Greene retorted. "You know, there's unborn women, do they not have a right to life? Killing babies up until birth, are you serious right now? Why don’t you stand with women? Stand with mothers, stand with babies. It’s a great gift.“

MTG walks down steps and keeps heckling Dems. @RepPeteAguilar, Dems Vice caucus chair, tells her she’s being “performative.”

“No you’re performative,” she replies pic.twitter.com/DmVDzR7XfD

— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) September 24, 2021

This was far from the end of her venom, though. Wandering around the outskirts of the photo op, she continued to yell things “abortion is not a right, it’s not healthcare.” After Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) tells Greene her actions are performative, she snaps back “no, you’re performative!”

"Horrendous! You should all be ashamed," Green jeered at one point. That, however, was too much for one of the lawmakers, who took matters into her own hands.

"You should be ashamed of your incivility," Dingell yelled back.

"You know what? Killing a baby up until birth is a lack of civility, it's called murder," Green retorted, continuing with, "hey, how about the border down there? Lack of civility, how about lack of laws?"

Republican Rep. @mtgreenee gets into a shouting match with Democrats, incl. @BettyMcCollum04 and @RepDebDingell at the Democrats’ “Build Back Better for Women” photo-op pic.twitter.com/S3AZX1zfJg

— bryan metzger (@metzgov) September 24, 2021

"We have lots of laws we follow, and you should practice the basic thing you're taught in church: respect your neighbor," Dingell yelled back, standing about 20 feet away.

"Taught in church, are you kidding me? Try being a Christian and supporting life!" Green snapped back.

"You try being a Christian and try treating your colleagues decently," Dingell screamed, the fury evident in her voice and tripping slightly on the steps as she yelled.

"Watch your step, lady, you're going to fall down," Greene said back, walking away down the steps. "Control yourself."

Greene is, of course, no stranger to confrontation in the legislature, whether with other lawmakers or the press. In addition to sparking a shouting match over being asked to wear masks in the House during her January swearing-in ceremony, Greene once chased Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) around the Capitol building shouting random insults at her in 2019, before Greene was even a lawmaker.

She has also aroused fury by repeating a number of conspiracy theories ranging from the insurrectionary to the truly bizarre, including QAnon and that a family of Jewish bankers had orchestrated the California wildfires by firing lasers from satellites in space to clear a path for construction of the state’s high-speed rail line.

She has also repeatedly compared COVID-19 vaccines, mask mandates, and other pandemic-related things to various aspects of the Holocaust, despite periodic apologies.

At least she hasn’t taken after Rep. Preston Brooks, a South Carolina Democrat who in 1856 attacked his Republican colleague Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts after the abolitionist delivered a furious speech denouncing slavery and those who supported it, including relatives of Brooks.

The southern lawmaker beat Sumner severely with his cane in the Senate chamber, causing him to take a three-year recess to recover from his wounds. The incident is considered representative of the breakdown in civility and ability of the two sides to reconcile political differences that led to attempted secession of the southern slaveholding states and outbreak of the Civil War five years later.