- The House GOP conference devolved into Twitter chaos on Tuesday morning.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Rep. Nancy Mace "trash" for condemning Islamophobia from Rep. Lauren Boebert.
- Mace used three emojis to call Taylor Greene "batshit crazy," with other members also chiming in.
House GOP members descended into an intraparty Twitter mêlée on Tuesday morning, sparked by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene excoriating her colleague Rep. Nancy Mace as "trash in the GOP conference" and pushing Islamophobic stereotypes by accusing the South Carolina lawmaker of being "gal pals" with the "Jihad Squad."
At the heart of this digital knife fight were Islamophobic comments GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert recently made about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar. Boebert called Omar, who is Muslim, part of a "Jihad Squad" and claimed that a Capitol Police officer had "fret all over his face" when he stepped into an elevator with Boebert and Omar.
Boebert said she told the officer, "Well, she doesn't have a backpack. We should be fine," a comment implying that Omar is a terrorist.
Mace rebuked Boebert's comments in a Monday appearance on CNN Newsroom.
"I have time after time condemned my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for racist tropes and remarks that I find disgusting and this is no different than any other," Mace told CNN, adding that "we all have a responsibility … to lower the temperature and this does not do that."
Greene lashed out at Mace on Tuesday, writing on Twitter: ".@NancyMace is the trash in the GOP Conference. Never attacked by Democrats or RINO's (same thing) because she is not conservative, she's pro-abort. Mace you can back up off of @laurenboebert or just go hang with your real gal pals, the Jihad Squad. Your out of your league."
The "Jihad Squad" is an Islamophobic insult referring to Omar and her progressive allies.
Mace hit back at Taylor Greene by correcting her spelling of "you're" and doubling down on her criticism of Boebert as a "religious bigot" and "racist."
—Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) November 30, 2021
Mace did not clarify, however, who from the "Left" criticized her for going on a bipartisan congressional delegation to Taiwan. The routine trip, called a "codel," was a show of support for Taiwanese interests that spurred backlash from China.
In a subsequent tweet, Mace also used three emojis to call Taylor Greene "batshit crazy."
—Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) November 30, 2021
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a vocal critic of his more far-right colleagues, chimed in with another creative insult directed at Taylor Greene. The Illinois Republican, who is retiring in 2022, also issued a broadside at House Minority Kevin McCarthy for not forcefully condemning members like Greene and Boebert.
"I love this, but worth noting that while this battle between Nancy Mace and the unserious circus barker McSpacelaser, @GOPLeader continues his silent streak that would make a monk blush," Kinzinger tweeted.
The "McSpacelaser" moniker is a reference to how Taylor Greene, before being elected to Congress, shared a conspiracy theory on social media that California's devastating 2018 wildfires were caused by a laser sent from space by the Rothschild family. Theories that place powerful, wealthy Jewish families behind natural disasters or accuse them of shaping worldwide events from the shadows play into common pernicious anti-Semitic tropes.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California also got in on the Tuesday morning Twitter action, quipping, "I would say this feels like high school. But high schoolers know how to spell "you're."
Taylor Greene later replied: "*You're for the spellcheck police."
Taylor Greene and Mace's fight is representative of larger fissures within the Republican conference over both policy and substance between members like Taylor Greene and more moderate members. If Republicans win back the House in 2022, McCarthy has his work cut out for him: He would first have to navigate those competing factions in order to get elected as Speaker and then lead the caucus as it roils with tension.
Later on Tuesday morning, Mace threw more shade at Greene by repeating, word-for-word, a November 26 tweet in which Taylor Greene said she "got off a good call" with McCarthy.
"We spent time talking about solving problems not only in the conference, but for our country. I like what he has planned ahead," Mace wrote.