Greene rebuked for saying AFT president is 'not a mother'

During a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., repeatedly said the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, is "not a mother" after the head of the union said she is a "mother by marriage." Two Democrats on the committee, Reps. Robert Garcia and Raul Ruiz, criticized Greene, with Ruiz calling her remarks "cruel personal attacks."

Video Transcript

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Ms Weingarten, are you a medical doctor?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: I am not.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Are you a mother?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: I am a mother by marriage.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: By marriage, I see. And you--

RANDI WEINGARTEN: And my wife is here with me. So I'm really glad that she's here, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Miss Weingarten--

What I'd like to talk about is your recommendations to the CDC as not a medical doctor, not a biological mother, and, really, not a teacher either. So what you did is you advised the CDC--

ROBERT GARCIA: Mr. Chairman, that is-- I mean, that's attacking someone's character.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Excuse me. This is my time. The problem is, is people like you need to admit that you're just a political activist, not a teacher--

JAMES COMER: Gentlelady's time is expired.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: --not a mother, and not a medical doctor.

JAMES COMER: Gentlelady's time is expired.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: I yield.

ROBERT GARCIA: Yeah.

JAMES COMER: I now recognize Mr. Jordan from Ohio for five minutes.

ROBERT GARCIA: Point of order, Mr. Chairman. I just want to make note that the decorum of the attacks on the witness were unacceptable that the gentlelady from Georgia just did. And so it'd be nice if we didn't attack the witnesses, particularly whether-- when making a decision about whether or not she's a mother. You are a mother. Thank you for being a great parent. Thank you.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Thank you.

JAMES COMER: Your point of order is recognized, Mr. Garcia.

RAUL RUIZ: Point of order?

JAMES COMER: I now recognize Mr--

RAUL RUIZ: Point of order?

JAMES COMER: Yes.

RAUL RUIZ: Given that his point of order is recognized and given that that was not just cruel personal attacks to Ms. Weingarten, who loves her children, it is reflective of the cruel personal attacks to any adopted mother or father who love their children. So I would kindly ask that those remarks be taken out of the record for the sake of all of the parents who have adopted a child and love them dearly and see them as their own.

JAMES COMER: It was not a violation of the House rules. However, your point of order is recognized.