Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said she felt “threatened” by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) after a heated exchange outside the Capitol on Wednesday and said him calling her a white supremacist was like using the “N-word.”
Greene and Bowman got into an argument outside the Capitol steps on Wednesday after Bowman and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) shouted at Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who was giving a press conference, to resign following his federal criminal indictment. Greene told Bowman that President Joe Biden should be impeached, while Bowman asked her to “save” her party that was “hanging by a thread.”
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During a press conference on Thursday, Greene said she felt “threatened” by Bowman’s actions and that “he approached me.”
“Yelling, shouting, raising his voice. He has aggressive — his physical mannerisms are aggressive,” she said.
“I think there’s a lot of concern about Jamaal Bowman, and I am concerned about it. I feel threatened by him,” Greene continued.
Marjorie Taylor Greene says that when people like Jamaal Bowman call her a white supremacist it’s “like calling a person a color the n-word”
“His physical mannerisms are aggressive … I feel threatened by him,” Greene adds of Bowman pic.twitter.com/c0JtNN0Z5R
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2023
Outside the Capitol on Wednesday, video of the interaction shows Bowman gesturing and raising his voice at Greene, but he did not appear to cross into Greene’s personal space. Both people were flailing their hands and leaning in to speak to the other person in what Bowman called a “light back-and-forth” exchange.
After hearing Greene’s comments on Thursday, Bowman said he believed Greene was targeting him because of his race.
“There is a long tradition — that Marjorie should be well aware of — of Black men who are passionate, outspoken, or who stand their ground, being characterized as ‘threatening’ or ‘intimidating,'” Bowman said in a statement.
“The truth of the matter is that we had a light back-and-forth on the steps of Capitol Hill, surrounded by reporters and staff. We can roll back the tapes and see her characterization of our conversation is an utter and blatant lie,” Bowman continued. “This is, historically, what white supremacists do. They try to dehumanize Black people, Black skin, and Black humanity — so that we can be targeted for harm.”
Bowman’s “white supremacist” comment comes after Greene claimed on Thursday that Wednesday’s argument was not the first interaction with Bowman that made her fear for her life. She said the New York representative shouted “at the top of his lungs” that Greene was a white supremacist while she was in New York protesting former President Donald Trump’s indictment — a term to which she said she takes “great offense.”
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“That is like calling a person of color the N-word, which should never happen,” Greene said. “Calling me a white supremacist is equal to that, and that is wrong.”
“Jamaal Bowman was down there, cursing at me, telling me to get the ‘F’ out of there,” Greene said of the day in New York. “He was leading the mob right outside of the vehicle I was sitting in.”
