Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) is moving her office for the “safety” of her staff and herself after a tense encounter at the U.S. Capitol with QAnon-backing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“A maskless Marjorie Taylor Greene & her staff berated me in a hallway” in a Jan. 13 incident, the Black freshman lawmaker tweeted Friday. “She targeted me & others on social media. I’m moving my office away from hers for my team’s safety.”
Bush has sponsored a bill calling for an investigation into House members to determine if they violated their oath of office with actions to overturn the presidential election. If so, the bill calls for expulsion or other sanctions. Greene, also a freshman, would be among those investigated.
A maskless Marjorie Taylor Greene & her staff berated me in a hallway. She targeted me & others on social media.
I'm moving my office away from hers for my team's safety.
I've called for the expulsion of members who incited the insurrection from Day 1. Bring H.Res 25 to a vote.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 29, 2021
Bush’s office has been “reassigned” at her request by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “This room assignment change was by the direct order of the speaker,” a Pelosi aide told NBC.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Joy Reid later on Friday, Bush said she was not “scared” of Greene. But Bush said she decided to move her office so she would not need to constantly wonder “if a white supremacist” is “conspiring against us.”
She described the encounter with Greene as “unbelievable,” adding that she has “never been in a work environment like this before.”
Safety has become a top concern at the Capitol following the Jan. 6 attack on the building by supporters of then-President Donald Trump ― an assault that resulted in five deaths, including that of a Capitol police officer.
Adding to the tension has been the resurfacing of social media posts in which Greene “liked” posts by others that suggested executing Pelosi, FBI agents and others.
Greene on Friday denied Bush’s account of their encounter, saying it was the Missouri lawmaker who berated her. She tweeted a closeup video of herself walking, apparently in a Capitol hallway, as she bashed Democrats and Black Lives Matter protesters. She then shouted at someone who told her to put on a mask. “You know what?” she yelled. “You shouldn’t bring COVID-positive members in here, spreading COVID everywhere.”
The other person could not be seen on the tape — only Greene’s head was in the frame — but she said she was talking to a Democratic colleague. “That’s how it is in America now,” she complained in the video. Greene boasted later in her tweet that she had “the receipts” proving the truth of her dealing with Bush.
She lied in her tweeted video that Bush was the “leader” of the Black Lives Matter “terrorist mob” who “trespassed” into a gated St. Louis neighborhood to “threaten” the lives of Mark and Patricia McCloskey. In fact, the McCloskeys ended up being charged with felony illegal weapons possession and tampering with evidence. Mark McCloskey was photographed brandishing an AR-15 rifle at peaceful demonstrators, while his wife was filmed with her finger on the trigger of a semi-automatic handgun.
