Latest news with #Stansbury
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marjorie Taylor Greene Hammered For Refusing To Stop Smashing Gavel At Hearing
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was hammered repeatedly by a Democratic congresswoman on Tuesday for the way she was using her gavel. After a witness testified in a DOGE subcommittee hearing, the Georgia Republican said, 'No one loves veterans more than President Trump.' New Mexico Democrat Melanie Stansbury immediately objected, and pointed out that, according to the rules of parliamentary procedure,Greene had not been recognized to give a statement like that. 'Madam, it is not your time right now,' Stansbury said. Greene declared, 'I'm the chair of this committee,' and started banging the gavel while Stansbury kept noting, 'That's not how parliamentary procedure works.' 'Miss Stansbury, you're not recognized,' Greene said, banging her gavel even more. Stansbury told Greene she could 'smash' the gavel all day, before mockingly suggesting that 'We're going to get you a Robert's Rules of Order,' a noted manual for parliamentary procedure. 'Madam Chair, calm down. Let's move on,' Stansbury added. The video below pretty much nails the encounter. Of course, people had thoughts about the incident ― it's the internet, silly. This isn't the first time Greene has used her gavel against Stansbury. Back in May,she slammed her gavel more than 50 timesduring a House subcommittee hearing focused on transgender women in sports, after Stansbury went over her allotted time. Marjorie Taylor Greene Flips Out Over 'Dirty Rumors' About Her And Trump Marjorie Taylor Greene Accuses Trump Of MAGA 'Bait And Switch' After Iran Attack Marjorie Taylor Greene Rages Against Trump Iran Strike With Chilling Warning Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Says 'Peace Is The Answer'
Int'l Business Times
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Marjorie Taylor Greene Bangs Gavel After Being Interrupted While Praising Trump: 'I'm the Chair of This Committee'
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene drew ire after disregarding the rules of parliamentary procedure and speaking out of turn to praise President Donald Trump, and repeatedly banged her gavel wat attempts to interrupt her. The Republican representative, who chairs the House Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee, spoke out of turn during a committee hearing on Tuesday. "No one loves veterans more than President Trump, and he's made that apparent," Greene said. "That's why he's working for peace." "Madam Chair, Madam Chair," Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury said, trying to interrupt Greene's statement. "It's not your time." "I'm the chair of this committee," Greene stated, banging her gavel repeatedly. "You're not recognized Ms. Stansbury." "You're not recognized either," Stansbury shot back. "You can't just speak anytime you want." "I'm the chair of this committee," Greene repeated. "That's not how it works," the New Mexico representative stated. "Madam Chairwoman, that is not how part of it. You can smash your gavel all day, but that's not how parliamentary procedure is. We're going to get you a Robert's Rules of Order." "Ms. Stansbury, you're not recognized," Greene insisted. "Madam Chair, calm down. Let's move on," Stansbury said. "You're not recognized," Greene repeated. Social media users took to online platforms to express their frustrations with Greene's conduct during the hearing. "Marjorie banging that gavel like it's a Fisher-Price toy she thinks controls the Deep State. Parliamentary procedure just filed for a restraining order," one user quipped. "Somebody make a clip of all the times she beat her gavel and put it to music. I would but don't know how," another joked. "What a petulant child @mtgreenee is," one user remarked, tagging the lawmaker on X. "Watching Marjorie Taylor Greene try to run a hearing is like watching a toddler pretend to drive a fire truck. Lots of noise, zero control, and absolutely no idea what the hell she's doing," one user added. "A chairperson is supposed to be an impartial moderator and rule on points of order or parliamentary inquiries," another noted. Greene eventually yielded five minutes worth of speaking time to Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) after once again reiterating that she was the chair of the committee. Originally published on Latin Times
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How this Democrat fights Marjorie Taylor Greene's transphobia in Congress with smart preparation
New Mexico Democratic U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury wasn't planning to go viral. But when she spoke up during a congressional hearing last month and calmly held aloft an uncropped photo that debunked a Republican smear — while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican and subcommittee chairwoman, slammed her gavel in exasperation — the moment captured something larger than one procedural dispute. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. In a single act of preparation and truth-telling, Stansbury had exposed the hearing as political theater. The doctored image, which Greene's team presented in an effort to humiliate USA Fencing Chair Damien Lehfeldt, appeared to show him flipping off the committee. But as Stansbury revealed, he was actually flashing a peace sign. 'The document you have up behind you is a misrepresentation of the actual post,' she said as Greene tried to continue speaking. Greene responded with a furious, uncontrolled banging of the gavel — a scene that quickly became the viral centerpiece of the May 8 Department of Government Efficiency Subcommittee hearing and a late-night comedy segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live! But Stansbury wasn't trying to be funny. She was trying to expose a lie. In a Tuesday interview with The Advocate, Stansbury explained that the viral moment was the result of weeks of planning — and a decision to reject silence. 'When we saw that the chairwoman was going to call a hearing on transgender athletes, actually my initial response was, we're not participating in that at all,' she said. 'Because clearly, it really is wholly outside of the scope of anything that the Oversight Committee has anything to do with. And it's just a blatant political attack on the trans community.' Related: Jasmine Crockett shreds GOP's obsession with trans people over American problems with 'Trump or trans' game Ultimately, she and her fellow Democrats chose to engage strategically. 'We were prepared to shut them down,' she said. 'We were ready to use every procedural motion we could. We were ready for any shenanigans they would pull.' The plan worked. Early in the hearing, Stansbury called a motion to adjourn, and when Republicans didn't have enough members in the room to stop her, the delay bought critical time. 'They had to sit there for about 10 or 15 minutes,' she recalled. 'And so during that time, some of our staff saw the poster they were planning on presenting.' That gave Stansbury the upper hand. When Greene unveiled the image, Stansbury called it out immediately. The gavel slammed. Greene shouted. The internet noticed. For Stansbury, who has been representing New Mexico's First District since 2021, the hearing was just the latest installment in what she calls a disturbing trend. 'In my personal opinion, I think that the Republican fixation on trans lives is weird,' she said. 'It's just weird. I almost cannot explain it.' Related: Nancy Mace sits silently as Robert Garcia roasts her anti-trans record in House Oversight hearing She singled out GOP members like South Carolina U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, saying, 'Who once purported to stand with [the] LGBTQ+ community and now are just so obsessed in a way that is unhealthy — even personally.' Stansbury made the same point even more bluntly during the hearing itself: 'It's just weird. Your obsession with this is weird.' Greene's retort — 'We'll let the American people decide who the weirdos are' — backfired spectacularly, becoming meme fodder within hours. 'I could tell that it got under the skin of the chairwoman when I said that,' Stansbury told The Advocate. Stansbury made clear that the GOP's culture war is not organic. 'This was a completely manufactured issue,' she said. 'You know, the Republicans are obsessed with less than 1 percent of the population.' And she knows exactly where it's coming from. 'If you rewind the tape and look at where it originated from, the same groups that have Heritage Foundation affiliation are the same as those who brought before the Supreme Court for the Dobbs case," she said, referring to the case that led the court to strike down Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion rights nationally. "They are all being funded by dark money behind the scenes. And it is a Christian nationalist agenda that is very explicitly going after the trans community.' That targeting, she warned, has real consequences. 'I have trans kids in my life, and people are scared. People are afraid just to be themselves. I have a veteran in my district who has shared her story, and she's afraid to leave her house.' Despite Republicans' fixation, Stansbury said the issue around taking away trans rights is nowhere near the top of mind for her constituents. 'It doesn't come up. It has never once come up. Ever. Once. Never,' she said. 'I don't get asked about it in town halls. I don't get asked about it when I'm on the campaign trail. I don't get asked about it at the doors.' Instead, she said, New Mexicans take pride in their state's record, which includes gender-affirming care protections, legal safeguards for providers, and some of the most progressive LGBTQ+ rights laws in the country. As the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico outlines, those seeking gender-affirming care in the state are protected by confidentiality laws and can assert their rights through legal channels if they face discrimination. The law explicitly shields the privacy of patients from out of state, and conversion therapy remains banned. 'One of the biggest applause lines that I get when I do town halls is when I list all of the things that New Mexico did under progressive leadership, including protecting LGBTQ civil rights and transgender care,' she said. But on taking rights away from trans people in the state? 'It is not a motivating issue for any constituent that I have ever talked to,' Stansbury said. Amid whispers from some Democrats that the party should tone down its public support for transgender rights to avoid alienating moderate voters, Stansbury offered a sharp rebuttal. 'What I make of the kind of political retreat that I see some people making around this issue is, like, the American people right now — no matter what their ideological affiliation is — they want to see strong leadership,' she said. 'Trump is trying to take us back a half-century, whether that's civil rights, LGBTQ rights, women's rights, whatever it is,' she continued. 'And so we have to be as bold and as fierce in our fight as Democrats in standing up and saying no — and punching back — as they are in attacking people.' Asked how Democrats should respond to the tidal wave of false narratives, Stansbury was unequivocal: 'Allyship doesn't mean anything if it doesn't come with action.' 'To me, that means saying something when you see something, fighting back in a full-throttled way, speaking up, speaking out, reaching out to the communities that we work with and partnering with them.' And when it comes to Trump's broader agenda? 'They're trying to rewrite the Civil Rights Act. They're trying to undo all of these things that are not the result of policy and politics — they're the result of culture changing, of people's movements for generations,' she said. 'They think they can just go and write a few executive orders and undo generations of social struggles. They're crazy. That's not going to happen.' Stansbury finds hope in younger generations. 'I look at people in my life who are Gen Z and Alpha ... this younger generation doesn't even think about these issues the same way the older generation does,' she said. 'There's not only going not to be a demand for this, there's not going to be any tolerance for this.' But until that future arrives, Stansbury isn't waiting for permission to lead. 'We see you. We're fighting for you,' she said of her message to transgender Americans. 'You're loved, you're cared for, and we see what's happening — and we're going to continue to fight back.'
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House Democrat: It'll take ‘many years' to ‘rebuild' from Musk ‘destruction'
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) said that it will take 'many years' for the federal government agencies to 'rebuild' from the 'destruction' by tech billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel. Stansbury, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said during a Thursday night appearance on MSNBC's 'The Last Word' that investigations into DOGE are 'ongoing' because many court cases are in play against the advisory panel, whose work has resulted in the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers led to effectively shutting down entire agencies. 'I mean, these actual investigations are ongoing because there's so many court cases against what's going on. You know, it was just announced today that a judge was allowing a court case that's actually led by the Attorney General of New Mexico to continue because of the lawless way in which they've been conducting their activities under DOGE,' Stansbury said 'So I think it's going to take, frankly, not only many years to rebuild from the destruction that Elon Musk unleashed on the government, but to even understand what they did inside these agencies,' Stansbury told host Lawrence O'Donnell. 'And also, I mean, the impacts are still being felt to this day.' Musk served as a special government employee in President Trump's administration, advising DOGE on cost-cutting efforts in hopes of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse and slashing down the national debt. Those efforts have received strong pushback from Democrats in Congress. Musk said on Wednesday that he is leaving the White House, shortly after criticizing Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' a massive GOP budget bill that contains the president's legislative agenda. 'I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit … and it undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told 'CBS Sunday Morning.' On Thursday night, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would hold a press conference with Musk on Friday at 1:30 p.m. EDT 'This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House,' the president wrote. Stansbury told O'Donnell that the impact of DOGE's work is felt in her home state. 'Last night, I was talking to a doctor here in New Mexico, who said he can't renew his license to give prescriptions right now because DOGE messed up the DEA website,' the New Mexico Democrat said. 'So I mean, DOGE is still there, frankly, wreaking havoc on the federal government.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
30-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
House Democrat: It'll take ‘many years' to ‘rebuild' from Musk ‘destruction'
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) said that it will take 'many years' for the federal government agencies to 'rebuild' from the 'destruction' by tech billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel. Stansbury, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said during a Thursday night appearance on MSNBC's 'The Last Word' that investigations into DOGE are 'ongoing' because many court cases are in play against the advisory panel, whose work has resulted in the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers led to effectively shutting down entire agencies. 'I mean, these actual investigations are ongoing because there's so many court cases against what's going on. You know, it was just announced today that a judge was allowing a court case that's actually led by the Attorney General of New Mexico to continue because of the lawless way in which they've been conducting their activities under DOGE,' Stansbury said 'So I think it's going to take, frankly, not only many years to rebuild from the destruction that Elon Musk unleashed on the government, but to even understand what they did inside these agencies,' Stansbury told host Lawrence O'Donnell. 'And also, I mean, the impacts are still being felt to this day.' Musk served as a special government employee in President Trump's administration, advising DOGE on cost-cutting efforts in hopes of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse and slashing down the national debt. Those efforts have received strong pushback from Democrats in Congress. Musk said on Wednesday that he is leaving the White House, shortly after criticizing Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' a massive GOP budget bill that contains the president's legislative agenda. 'I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit … and it undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told 'CBS Sunday Morning.' On Thursday night, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would hold a press conference with Musk on Friday at 1:30 p.m. EDT 'This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House,' the president wrote. Stansbury told O'Donnell that the impact of DOGE's work is felt in her home state. 'Last night, I was talking to a doctor here in New Mexico, who said he can't renew his license to give prescriptions right now because DOGE messed up the DEA website,' the New Mexico Democrat said. 'So I mean, DOGE is still there, frankly, wreaking havoc on the federal government.'
