[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5695-H5698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
QUESTION OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I seek recognition for a
question of personal privilege.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair has been made aware of a valid
basis for the gentlewoman's point of personal privilege.
The gentlewoman from Georgia is recognized for 1 hour.
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I would like to address the
House and talk about how I have been mistreated as a freshman Member of
Congress and how crimes have been committed against me. They have been
caught by the Capitol Police. They have been sent to the Department of
Justice. The Department of Justice is refusing to prosecute these
crimes.
This is another example of the two-tiered justice system that we are
living under right now under the Biden Department of Justice and
Democrat leadership.
Now, I would like to go back to the beginning.
Many news articles have reported that this has happened to me. But I
would like to remind the House that starting on February 4, as a
freshman Member of Congress, I was kicked off committees by the
Democrat majority and 11 of my Republican colleagues, unfortunately. So
I serve here as a Member of Congress without committees representing my
district. But I have continued to work hard.
I would also remind the House that on February 24, after we had voted
on the Equality Act and we had been debating back and forth, I had made
many statements based on my beliefs, based on Biblical truths, based on
the beliefs of my district that I represent, that there are only two
genders: Male and female. And I stand firm on that. But my Democrat
colleague across the aisle placed a trans flag across the hall from my
office to apparently, maybe, shame me for my vote.
That happened.
Then in response to that, I simply put up a sign outside my office
responding to the flag. But it continued on.
There was also another incident on June 29 where one of my Democrat
colleagues screamed at me in the Cannon tunnel, yelling and screaming
at me for having a mask pulled down to my chin while I was talking on a
Facebook live video. So all of it was caught on a video.
That Member then went to the Speaker and claimed that I had attacked
her and was able to get her office moved because, apparently, she
claimed I was a threat to her--where I was not--and she was given a
security detail for her protection.
Then there were 73 Democrat colleagues who introduced a resolution to
expel me from Congress.
I will tell you what that says. It simply says that, ``Representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene, be, and she hereby is, expelled from the House
of Representatives,'' giving no reason whatsoever for this resolution,
but yet, it is sponsored by 1 of my Democrat colleagues and cosponsored
by 73 other Democrat colleagues.
Yet, I have done nothing wrong.
What else happened? Well, let's go a little further. I have over
$100,000 in mask fines. And then when I went before the House Committee
on Ethics on these mask fines, four of the five Democrats on the House
Committee on Ethics also had their names on this resolution to expel me
from Congress.
I asked them to recuse themselves, and they refused. Therefore, that
wasn't very fair. That is not fair treatment.
I have even had my character attacked on the House floor, calling me
horrendous names, horrible names, insulting names that aren't true
about me at all, accusing me of things that I have never done,
especially involving January 6.
Then there was even an effort recently to remove my name off of the
ballot so that the people of my district couldn't even vote for me. And
that came from a Democrat leftwing group that was funded by Democrats.
I beat that in court.
All of this time, with all of these things happening, the media has
promoted all of it. And because of this, I have had nearly 60 official
death threats, 21 direct death threats--and there is a man from New
York currently on trial for threatening to kill me--19 indirect
threats--these are basically death wishes and harassment--and 8
sexually related threats, individuals that have made threats of sexual
assault against myself and members of my family.
I will give you a few examples.
One person said, ``I need to F-ing kill you.''
Another one said, ``Marjorie Greene should find a bullet in her
head.''
Another one said, ``I can't wait till you get raped until you are
dead.''
And another threat said, ``I will come see you and your children''--
and it went on and on.
Now, all during this time, I have requested protection, saying I need
help, I need protection. I don't feel safe in these buildings. I don't
feel safe at all. And all of that has been denied. But I have watched
many of my colleagues across the aisle in the majority party receive a
lot of protection and help, but I have gotten none.
I want to go through some things that happened just recently. This
sign seems to upset people so much, but it is a simple truth. That is
an example of what I believe based on my Christian faith, based on what
the Bible says in Genesis--that God created us in His image, male and
female. He created us. And this is also the majority belief of the
people from Georgia's 14th District.
[[Page H5696]]
{time} 1445
This sign has been attacked repeatedly. As a matter of fact, it has
been attacked 11 times. Nine times it has been vandalized, and twice it
has been stolen. There has been a very specific series of attacks that
have happened. There are seven of these.
January 25, 2022, was the first report of this type of destruction.
Instead of people writing on it or stealing the sign, this was where
someone decided to put a sticker on the sign using Bible verses to
attack my Christian faith and covering mostly the word ``female.''
The sign destruction continued. Each time we would replace it, the
same thing would happen again.
I want to remind everyone that this was when our House offices were
still closed to the public. It was apparent that it was a staff member
somewhere in our office building.
Again, it showed up, another sticker attacking my Christian faith,
mostly over the word ``female.'' It happened on February 1, 2022, then
on February 2, 2022, on February 22, and on February 28. Each time, the
stickers were placed on the sign attacking my Christian faith. Even if
I wrote something back, it didn't matter. Another sticker would appear.
Every single attack had to do with a Bible verse, and it was directed
at me, maybe even a sticker of a picture of Jesus that said: ``I never
knew you, MTG.'' That was on the previous one.
My staff and I had been communicating with the House Sergeant at Arms
multiple times, but we were never getting a response. I had requested
cameras multiple times but was not getting any cameras.
Finally, the House Sergeant at Arms came to my office, and I talked
to them out in the hallway and was very loud in the hallway about my
need for surveillance cameras because I have nothing to hide.
I am perfectly fine with all the cameras in this building and all the
cameras in Longworth, where my office is. Myself and my staff have
nothing to hide, but clearly, there are other people that do.
I was demanding surveillance cameras because this entire time this
had been going on--at that point, it had been over a year. The person
that was continually attacking the sign is also attacking me and is
angry at me. I did not know if this was a person that I got in the
elevator with alone. I did not know if this person was someone that I
may be on an escalator with, passing in the hallway, passing on the
stairwell. I didn't know if this was a person that personally knew me
or someone I had never talked to in my life.
What I did know was the attacks kept coming. They would not stop. It
was someone who worked in the building, and they clearly hated me. I
felt very unsafe. I felt my life was in danger, especially with the
amount of death threats that I receive against myself and my family and
the complete refusal from the Sergeant at Arms and leadership to
provide me with any kind of security or protection.
Finally, they put surveillance cameras up. That was installed by the
House Sergeant at Arms on March 4. Guess what? Additional destruction
continued. It happened again on March 10. How about that? Six days
after the camera went up, the sign was attacked again, of course,
against my Christian faith, attacking my religion, and always making
sure it was somewhere covering the word ``female'' on the sign,
attacking my gender.
This time, on March 10, there happened to be a camera installed. The
suspect was caught on camera on March 10, and again, he was caught on
camera on March 11. Two times in one week, he was caught. Do you know
what? They didn't tell me who it was. They refused to tell me who this
person was.
They caught him on camera. They issued an arrest warrant to the
Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office on March 15 for
destruction of public or private property under D.C. Code 22-3312.01.
They caught him. They had it on video, knew who it was, and still
refused to tell me. No one would tell me who this person is. I am still
living in fear of: Who is this person? Why are they doing this? Are
they possibly one of the people threatening my life?
To my extreme disappointment, I received a phone call from the U.S.
Attorney's Office, who I thought for sure when I got on the phone and
it was a woman, I thought she might have some sympathy for what I am
going through. She let me know that the U.S. Attorney's Office is
declining to prosecute any charges against this person, and they would
not be following through. Even though they have it on video--they know
exactly who he is, and he has clearly broken the law--they didn't want
to prosecute it.
This is from our Department of Justice, the same Department of
Justice that is not prosecuting people that are harassing our Supreme
Court Justices and breaking Federal law, the same Department of Justice
that is not keeping our borders safe, the same Department of Justice
that is supposed to uphold all of our Federal laws for our country but
not stopping the fentanyl crisis, and the same Department of Justice
that isn't prosecuting crime, apparently, anywhere because crime is out
of control.
They don't care about crime here in this place in Congress, in the
Capitol complex. They only care about the people that definitely came
in and walked around on January 6. If you are one of those people, they
are prosecuting you to the hilt. Some of them are rotting in the D.C.
jail now.
If you are a Republican Member of Congress and someone is stalking,
harassing, attacking your gender, attacking your religion, they drop
the charges. You see, that is a two-tiered justice system. I can't
imagine why we are allowing that to happen.
The problem here is all the American people are paying their taxes,
and the Department of Justice is receiving their full budget, but the
Department of Justice is only prosecuting crimes that matter to half
the country. That is a two-tiered justice system.
In order to have a justice system that is fair and good, and one that
the American people can trust, it should be a justice system that
prosecutes crime just because it is a crime, not based on a political
party, not based on does it match up with the ideas or policies they
agree with or the President that is in the White House or whoever is
Speaker of the House or whoever is in leadership. It should matter that
it is a crime, and they should prosecute these crimes. Unfortunately,
that is not happening.
I did find out who this person is, and it is reported in the news. I
did find out that it is Representative Jake Auchincloss' chief of
staff. His chief of staff is the person that has been consistently
attacking the sign, targeting me, and harassing me.
This is a chief of staff. This isn't a low-level staffer. This isn't
an intern. This is a chief of staff, who has had quite a career here
working in this institution and who knows better.
As a matter of fact, he fully believes that you shouldn't harass
anyone over their religion or their gender or their sex or any of these
things. He definitely believes in hate crimes because, previously, when
he worked at another Member's office, when he was chief of staff in
that office, there was a man that yanked down their pride flag outside
their office, yanked it down and mistreated it. Well, Tim Hysom, the
chief of staff at Jake Auchincloss' office, who has been targeting and
harassing me, was so offended at that action that he and the other
staff chased that man down the hall. They wanted the Capitol Police to
arrest him and prosecute him. They wanted him prosecuted.
Yet, Tim Hysom, chief of staff for Jake Auchincloss, feels he is
completely above the law. He feels and says that my sign saying there
are only two genders, male and female, he says it is a statement of
hate, and, therefore, he is entitled to attack me for it.
You see, that is complete hypocrisy. That is not the way this works.
Why is one above the other? It shouldn't be. I thought, in America,
aren't we all equal? Aren't all of our beliefs protected? Isn't our
speech protected? Why is my religion under attack? Why is Christianity
under attack? My belief in defending women's and girls' privacy rights
in sports, why is that wrong yet it is okay for him to defend the pride
flag and be angered and upset and want to arrest and prosecute someone
when they attack it? It is a two-tiered justice system.
This is a man that I don't know; he doesn't know me. I didn't know
who he
[[Page H5697]]
was until a few weeks ago. I had no idea. For a time, I have been in my
office building many times late at night, but I don't go there by
myself anymore because of this man right here.
I don't know if he is one of the death threats that have called my
office. I don't know if he is one of the people that mail in
disgusting, horrible things to me and my office. I don't know what else
he would do because he feels he is above the law and beyond reproach.
I also don't understand why his boss, Representative Jake
Auchincloss, still has him employed. I will tell you right now, if
anyone in my office, if any of my staff, were to do what he has been
doing to another Member of Congress, they would be fired. My staff
would never do it.
Since early on in our term, when my colleague across the hall from me
attacked me on Twitter by starting on my nameplate and turning the
camera to herself where she planted the trans flag, no one in my
office, none of my staff, has touched her flag, nor would we because we
respect her freedom of speech and her right to have it there. We would
not touch it.
That is not how I have been treated. I have been treated much
differently. I have been attacked over and over and over and over.
Finally, when I got video surveillance cameras, the Capitol Police
did a great job. They caught him. They issued a warrant for his arrest,
and they sent it to the Department of Justice, but the Department of
Justice doesn't care. Why? Probably because I am a Republican.
We don't have a Republican White House. We don't have a Republican-
controlled Congress. Why should Republican Congresswoman Marjorie
Taylor Greene matter? Apparently, I don't matter. My safety doesn't
matter, and the beliefs of my district don't matter, not to the
Department of Justice.
They have no interest in prosecuting Tim Hysom for attacking me seven
times, twice caught on video. Nope. They don't care because half the
country doesn't care.
Let's go a little bit further. There have been more things that have
happened. I feel like it is almost like high school mean-girl behavior,
but this is supposed to be Congress.
We also had a situation on June 16, just last week. There was a
certain film crew that works for Stephen Colbert who had been basically
stalking me all day long, going throughout, following us around here.
My staff was very helpful in putting me in the car and keeping me away
from them. They ended up outside my office, and my staff took me
somewhere else so I didn't have to go there.
Now, we find out that it was a certain Democrat Member who is serving
on the January 6th Committee who let them in the buildings. When the
Capitol Police threw them out, it also happened to be Congressman Jake
Auchincloss' and Tim Hysom's staff that let them back in late at night.
{time} 1500
Madam Speaker, do you know whose office they were going to?
Mine. My office. So this is more behavior where I don't feel safe. I
feel as if my life is constantly threatened. I am constantly harassed.
This is no way for anyone to have to do work here. This place should
not be run like this. This shouldn't be allowed.
Now, while the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack
on the U.S. Capitol is currently accusing one of my colleagues,
Representative Barry Loudermilk, of giving tours--which is a lie about
him. They are lying about him and saying that he did something he did
not do. They, at the same time, were letting these people in all of our
office buildings. We don't even know where they all went. But they
know, and the Capitol Police know. They were allowing them to go
everywhere, as if they were doing some sort of insurrection.
Why is that being allowed?
Why do they get to have tours and free rein running all around the
hallways and attacking Members' offices, but then we get accused of
something horrible?
This is wrong.
Madam Speaker, do you know what people care about?
People care about inflation; they can't afford groceries; mothers
can't find baby formula; women can't find tampons; people can't afford
gas; people are so upset about crime; and people are so upset that no
one cares that we even have a border. These are the things that people
care about.
They don't care about the petty and ridiculous garbage that happens
in this place. But this is what we are dealing with because the
Department of Justice will not prosecute any of these crimes.
It is all about politics.
Aren't politics disgusting? I am so sick and tired of politics.
The whole reason why I ran for Congress is because I was upset that
we are a Nation in debt that we will never be able to repay. I have
three children--I hope to God I have grandchildren--and I don't know
what is going to happen to their lives. I was upset because our economy
is so fragile and is at risk of crumbling.
I was upset because our Nation had been shut down over a virus, and
we should have never been shut down.
I was upset because I feel as if we have the greatest country in the
world, but it is this place that doesn't respect it. I respect the
American people far more than I respect this institution because the
American people work their tails off. They pay their taxes. They
balance their checkbooks, and they do everything they can to get by.
But here we play political games where chiefs of staff who know
better attack women over our religious beliefs and about the fact that
we refuse to back down about there only being two genders.
So if that is hate, if that is a comment of hate, am I going to end
up being locked away in jail somewhere?
If so, Madam Speaker, you can put me in the dungeon, and I will still
scream it from the pits of the dungeon of the jail because it is my
belief and it is the truth.
Women are under attack and girls are under attack. We have no more
rights because any man who decides that he calls himself a woman can
invade our spaces. And any man--when we stand up against it--can attack
us, and the Department of Justice will do nothing about it. What kind
of Congress is that?
Aren't we supposed to be the body that legislates the laws, creates
the budget, and funds the Department of Justice?
We are supposed to be. But, no, we are doing things like this.
So I get to go here. I am here at work this week. Tim Hysom is still
chief of staff for Representative Jake Auchincloss. Representative Adam
Schiff--who is currently on the Select Committee to Investigate the
January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol and right now is lying about
Republicans--who let in Stephen Colbert's gang of seven Democrat
activist film crew still has his committee. I don't have committees.
This isn't how people should be treated. This isn't right.
Here is the other thing: It is not just I who feels this way. There
are tens of millions of Americans--hundreds of millions of Americans--
who agree and who are tired of it, sick and tired of it.
So while this institution is making a mockery of itself with its
Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S.
Capitol, the Department of Justice refuses to prosecute all of the BLM
rioters. No. Their charges got dropped.
Everyone who did come in here and riot--and by the way, I didn't like
it either. I didn't like it at all. It scared me a lot--but those
people, oh, they have been charged. The Department of Justice will do
that.
But they won't prosecute this man, and his boss won't fire him. No.
He gets to keep his job.
Again, I want to remind you, Madam Speaker, if my staff--imagine--had
attacked my colleague across the hall, had attacked her trans flag, I
cannot even imagine what would happen to them. Not only would I have
fired them, they would have been arrested. They would probably still be
in jail, and their names, their lives, and every detail of their life
would be spread all over the news. People would know where they went to
elementary school, they would know their mom and dad, and they would
definitely know their address, I am sure. They would have their phone
number, and they would see every social media post, text, message or
whatever. It would all be out there.
[[Page H5698]]
But, no, that is not how it works for us. And that is a two-tiered
justice system.
The reason why I bring this up is the way that I have been treated--
mistreated really--since I came here as a freshman Member of Congress--
and I want to remind everyone that I have never been arrested. I have
always paid my taxes. I have not broken the law. I have done nothing
wrong. It is the majority party that doesn't like my speech. That is
it.
So I have been kicked off committees. I have been routinely attacked.
I have been lied about. My character has been completely destroyed, not
only by people in here but the media definitely helps them. I have so
many death threats that I have had to pay for my own personal security.
Now the Department of Justice will not prosecute someone when they are
caught committing a crime against me, against my gender, and my
religion. They have been attacking me over and over and over again.
Do you know something, Madam Speaker?
The way this place treats me is exactly the way conservatives,
Republican voters, and many Americans feel treated. They feel
mistreated because this place only cares about itself. This place cares
about what happens here and is so disconnected to farmers who are about
to go out of business, mothers who can't find baby formula, and women
who can't find feminine products.
All those border towns have been overrun, overrun, and overrun. They
try to help the people so much. They can't even help anymore. The crime
is increasing. We are sending billions and billions of dollars over for
a proxy war with Russia and some other country to protect their
borders, but we won't protect our own. The American people feel
mistreated, the same way I feel mistreated.
It is completely wrong. It needs to change.
You see, Madam Speaker, this is a place where we should all be
working together. It shouldn't be hard for Democrats and Republicans to
come up with a budget that serves our country. It shouldn't be hard for
us to work together to fund a Department of Justice that prosecutes
crimes in America and crimes against Members of Congress. That should
be something we care about.
This shouldn't be complicated; but somehow it is complicated, and it
is all complicated because of the disgusting industry called politics.
And that needs to change.
We are going to hit a point one day where the American people are so
sick of us, are sick of Congress, and are sick of what happens here. We
are going to hit a point one day where the American people will not
only be sick of us, but they just won't trust us anymore.
And do you want to know something, Madam Speaker?
Madam Speaker, I don't blame them one single bit.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________