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Reporter who saw Marjorie Taylor Greene chase AOC through Congress said she was definitely screaming, which Greene denied

  • Reporters said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was screaming when she confronted AOC in Congress.

  • Jacqueline Alemany told CNN about watching the angry encounter.

  • Greene denied yelling, saying she was "talking" when she ran after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was indeed screaming when she accosted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York in Congress, despite Greene's claims she wasn't, a reporter who was there says.

Greene has denied screaming during an ugly encounter outside the House chamber in which The Washington Post reported that she pursued Ocasio-Cortez while yelling.

The Post reported that Greene called Ocasio-Cortez's name twice, sped up after her, and said, "You don't care about the American people," adding: "Why do you support terrorists and antifa?"

Ocasio-Cortez, who ignored the incident, later released a statement saying Greene had been "screaming" and called for a "safe, civil" environment for House members.

When asked about the incident, Greene told reporters she had merely been "talking" to Ocasio-Cortez.

"She said 'screaming,'" Greene said. "Do you know what screaming is? That's what people do when rockets are fired at them like Hamas terrorists are firing into Israel ... I was talking to AOC." She added that Ocasio-Cortez was "reacting like a child."

A CNN splitscreen of an anchor interviewing Washington Post reporter Jacqueline Alemany.
CNN interviewing The Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany, right, about Greene's stunt with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. CNN

Jacqueline Alemany, one of the reporters who contributed to The Post's report, later contradicted Greene's account. "That is, in fact, not what happened. She was screaming," she told CNN.

She said she had been "really shocked" by the situation, "so much so that I honestly didn't even have the presence of mind to record the interaction, because I was so taken aback and surprised by Greene's behavior."

She said the scene was even more aggressive than a 2019 encounter in which Greene harassed David Hogg, a teen gun-control activist who survived the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, asking him why he supported gun control. Footage of that emerged earlier this year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called Greene's behavior toward Ocasio-Cortez "abuse" and "verbal assault" and suggested the House Ethics Committee should look into it.

Asked about the incident Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, likened Greene to the kind of people she used to throw out of her bar.

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