WASHINGTON – Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is no stranger to controversy.
The freshman congresswoman from Georgia came into office as a contentious figure and, in an unprecedented step, was soon removed from her committee assignments by a House vote over a stream of inflammatory and menacing social media posts she made before she was elected.
Greene has stirred controversy on Capitol Hill over her tolerance of conspiracy theories, including questioning whether the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened, stalking and taunting a teen survivor of the deadly Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, and suggesting that space lasers were causing deadly wildfires in California.
This week, Greene and her staffers repeatedly made headlines after confrontations with other lawmakers.
As Greene, and her staff, continue to rattle those on Capitol Hill, House members may be losing patience. Here's what we know about this week's incidents.
More:House removes Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees over incendiary social media posts
Verbal confrontation with AOC
While leaving a congressional hearing Wednesday afternoon, Greene confronted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and repeatedly shouted "Hey, Alexandria" to get Ocasio-Cortez's attention, according to a Washington Post report.
"You don't care about the American people," Greene shouted at Ocasio-Cortez. "Why do you support terrorists and antifa?"
When Ocasio-Cortez attempted to evade Greene, the Georgia Republican shouted that Ocasio-Cortez was failing to defend her "radical socialist" views by not confronting her. Ocasio-Cortez turned around and threw her hands up in frustration at one point after Greene's goading.
Ocasio-Cortez told reporters that Greene was "deeply unwell." Her office is calling on House leaders to "take real steps to make Congress a safe, civil workplace for both Members and staff."
Greene told reporters she was just "pushing for debate" on things like the Green New Deal, and said the New York congresswoman is “very scared and she runs away.”
Pelosi: Ethics Committee should 'probably' investigate
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the "verbal assault and real abuse" Greene directed toward Ocasio-Cortez should "probably" be investigated by the House Ethics Committee.
"It's so beyond the pale of anything that is in keeping with bringing honor to the House or not bringing dishonor to the House. It's so beyond the pale that you wonder that is probably a matter for the Ethics Committee," Pelosi said during her weekly press briefing.
More:A culture war has been brewing at the Capitol for years. Now it's at a boiling point.
The House Ethics Committee is charged with investigating unethical or improper conduct of House members.
Greene responded on Twitter, saying the Ethics Committee should instead investigate Ocasio-Cortez for putting Trump administration staff and supporters "on lists to destroy their lives and prevent future employment. She threatened the livelihoods of Americans for simply being Republicans," Greene wrote.
Other members have also expressed frustration with Greene. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., donned an "expel MTG" face mask Thursday, and told Forbes he is going to try to force a vote on her expulsion.
2019 video highlights prior altercation on Capitol Hill
On Friday, CNN's K-File unearthed a video from February 2019 — before Greene was elected to Congress — that showed her taunting Ocasio-Cortez's staff outside their office's locked door.
Greene, who then was a conservative activist, can be seen teasing those in Ocasio-Cortez's office through the mail-slot in the door, saying, “Stop being a baby” and “come out and face the American citizens that you serve.”
"If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper and come out and be able to talk to the American citizens, instead of having to use a flap, a little flap. Sad," she continues in the video.
The now-deleted Facebook Live video also reportedly includes a man who was caught on camera as part of the group that broke into the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Swalwell's heated interaction with Greene aide
Scott Wong, a writer for The Hill, tweeted Friday about a verbal altercation between Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Greene spokesman Nick Dyer.
Dyer apparently told a masked Swalwell, “Biden says you can take off your mask,” according to Wong. In response, said Dyer, Swalwell cursed at him and told Dyer not to tell him what to do.
Wong tweeted that he witnessed the altercation but was not close enough to hear Swalwell.
Swalwell elaborated on the incident in a response to Wong's tweet, saying he stepped off the floor of the House while wearing a mask when the Greene aide yelled at him to take it off.
"No one should be bullied for wearing a mask. So I told the bully what I thought of his order," Swalwell said. He did not deny cursing at the aide.
During an interview with MSNBC's Chris Jansing on Friday, Swalwell said the House physician requires people to wear masks on the House floor. "I'd stepped off the floor and I was walking down the outside steps and like many of us, I had just forgotten to take my mask off," he explained.
Swallwell said he passed Greene and her aide, who then yelled at him, "take of your mask, congressman." Swallwell told Jansing he'd had enough of the "marauding goons in the Marjorie Taylor Greene crowd who go around trying to terrorize my colleagues."
"I just thought, you know what? The best way to not let people like this bully others is to tell the bullies to back off. And so, not surprisingly this aide of hers got quite speechless after I had a few choice words for him," Swalwell said.
Contributing: Matthew Brown, Chelsey Cox
