WASHINGTON: In the latest sign of rising tensions within the US Congress, a Democratic congresswoman said on Friday she plans to relocate her Capitol Hill office for safety reasons after being “berated” by an outspoken conservative Republican congresswoman.
Democrat Cori Bush, an ordained pastor from Missouri, described confrontations with Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whose office is located near Bush’s in one of the three large House of Representatives office buildings. Both are first-term House members who took office this month.
The incidents are further evidence of discord among lawmakers after a Jan. 6 riot in which supporters of Republican former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, interrupting the formal certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory and leading to the deaths of five people.
Bush wrote on Twitter that she is moving her office after Greene “berated me in a hallway” and “came up from behind me, loud and unmasked.” Public health experts have recommended masks to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
“What I cannot do is continue to look over my shoulder wondering if a white supremacist in Congress by the name of Marjorie Taylor Greene or anyone else — because there are others — that they are doing something or conspiring against us,” Bush told MSNBC.
Greene accused Bush of “lying” about the matter and on Twitter called Bush, who is Black, “the leader of the St. Louis Black Lives Matter terrorist mob.” Greene is White.
The non-governmental Republican Jewish Coalition said it was working with House Republican leadership “regarding next steps in this matter,” but it did not elaborate.
In a statement, the organization said it worked against Greene’s 2020 election because she had “promoted bizarre political conspiracy theories” and had posed for photos with a white supremacist leader and “refused to admit a mistake” in so doing.
Greene first gained national attention for her interest in the QAnon conspiracy theory that falsely claims that high-profile Democrats are part of a child pedophile ring. CNN reported that before coming to Congress, Greene had expressed support for executing Democrats, including Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Greene also promoted Trump’s false claims that he won the November election.
Pelosi said on Thursday that new security measures might be needed “when the enemy is within the House of Representatives.”
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has been under pressure to take action against Greene and has said he would have a “conversation” with her. A McCarthy aide has called Greene’s comments about killing Democrats “deeply disturbing.”
No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalize, who was gravely wounded in 2017 when a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers in Virginia, added that “there is no place for comments” like those made by Greene.
Separately, first-term Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert was warned this month by law enforcement that she would face criminal penalties if she unlawfully carried a firearm. Boebert has vowed to carry her Glock pistol in the Capitol.
Boebert also has mocked a gun-control activist who survived a deadly 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
US House Democrat to move office after confrontation with ‘white supremacist’ Republican lawmaker
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US House Democrat to move office after confrontation with ‘white supremacist’ Republican lawmaker
- The non-governmental Republican Jewish Coalition said it was working with House Republican leadership “regarding next steps in this matter”
- It worked against Greene’s 2020 election for “promoting bizarre political conspiracy theories” and posing for photos with a white supremacist leader
Archbishop of York says he was ‘intimidated’ by Israeli militias during West Bank visit
- “We were … intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn’t visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank,” the archbishop said
LONDON: The Archbishop of York has revealed that he felt “intimidated” by Israeli militias during a visit to the Holy Land this year.
“We were stopped at various checkpoints and intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn’t visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank,” the Rev. Stephen Cottrell told his Christmas Day congregation at York Minster.
The archbishop added: “We have become — and really, I can think of no other way of putting it — we have become fearful of each other, and especially fearful of strangers, or just people who aren’t quite like us.
“We don’t seem to be able to see ourselves in them, and therefore we spurn our common humanity.”
He recounted how YMCA charity representatives in Bethlehem, who work with persecuted Palestinian communities in the West Bank, gave him an olive wood Nativity scene carving.
The carving depicted a “large gray wall” blocking the three kings from getting to the stable to see Mary, Joseph and Jesus, he said.
He said it was sobering for him to see the wall in real life during his visit.
He continued: “But this Christmas morning here in York, as well as thinking about the walls that divide and separate the Holy Land, I’m also thinking of all the walls and barriers we erect across the whole of the world and, perhaps most alarming, the ones we build around ourselves, the ones we construct in our hearts and minds, and of how our fearful shielding of ourselves from strangers — the strangers we encounter in the homeless on our streets, refugees seeking asylum, young people starved of opportunity and growing up without hope for the future — means that we are in danger of failing to welcome Christ when he comes.”
