During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) found herself seated next to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). In a recent revelation, Moore shared how she fact-checked Greene “in real time.”
During an interview on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Moore revealed that she ended up sitting next to Greene in an aisle seat. This happened because she arrived late and a colleague, whose identity remains unknown, told her that they had the ideal seat for her.
Moore recalled how nobody was willing to sit next to MTG, referring to the time when Greene accused her of spreading COVID in 2021.
Moore admitted to giving herself a pep talk before settling into her seat for Biden’s speech.
“I told Gwen, ‘You don’t want to endure standing up for two and a half hours.’ I reminded her that Joe Biden tends to speak at length, so I knew it would take a while. ‘You don’t have to engage with her, Gwen. Remember your ethics training. You don’t have to agree with everyone.'”
“I couldn’t just ignore her,” Moore explained. “It was impossible, you know? I found myself fact-checking her on the spot, sitting right beside her and quietly responding to some of the things she said, even during her outbursts.”
She emphasized that the woman in question is indeed a human being. Her intention was to elicit empathy and understand whether she possessed any. Rather than constantly expressing surprise or shock over Donald Trump’s supporters, she believed in the importance of listening to them.
Moore recalled two instances where she fact-checked Greene.
During their conversation, Greene expressed surprise and disbelief when Biden mentioned Bettie Mae Fikes and the march to Selma. She questioned the relevance of 1965 and claimed that nobody is currently facing voter suppression. However, the interviewee, who had personally met Fikes, corrected Greene’s misconception by recounting her own experience of voting in the last election and the attempt to restrict her access to a drop box.
During another conversation, Greene expressed her dissatisfaction with how Biden handled the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that he caused businesses to close down. In response, Moore shared a personal experience, stating, “Well, girl, COVID was a real thing. My eldest son had a close brush with death due to COVID and had to be hospitalized and put on a ventilator for a week.”
