During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) had the opportunity to fact-check Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) firsthand. In an unexpected twist, they were seated next to each other.
During an interview on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Moore revealed that she found herself seated in an aisle seat next to Greene due to her arrival being delayed. A colleague, whose identity remains unknown, informed her that they had selected the “perfect seat” for her.
According to Moore, there was a general reluctance among people to sit next to MTG. This aversion stemmed from the conflict that arose between Moore and Greene in 2021 when Greene accused Moore of spreading COVID.
Moore admitted that she had to psych herself up before settling into her seat for Biden’s speech.
“I told Gwen, ‘You don’t want to endure standing for two and a half hours.’ I reminded her that Joe Biden tends to be long-winded, so I anticipated being there for a while. ‘You don’t have to engage with her, Gwen. Remember your ethics training. You don’t have to share the same views as others.'”
“I couldn’t just ignore her,” Moore admitted. “I found myself fact-checking her in real time, sitting right beside her, responding quietly to some of her statements and outbursts.”
“And she is, without a doubt, a human being,” she emphasized. “My intention was to elicit empathy and discover if she possessed any, urging us to shift our focus from incessantly expressing astonishment and dismay over Donald Trump’s supporters, but rather to sincerely listen to them.”
Moore recalled fact-checking two claims made by Greene.
During a discussion about voting rights, Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed surprise when Joe Biden mentioned Bettie Mae Fikes and the march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Greene exclaimed, “1965?” seemingly unaware of the ongoing issues surrounding voting rights. In response, the other person in the conversation, who had personally met Fikes, clarified that attempts to restrict voting still persist today. They shared their own experience of voting in the last election using a drop box, emphasizing the importance of protecting everyone’s right to vote.
During a conversation, Moore recalls Greene expressing her grievances regarding Biden’s actions during the COVID pandemic. In response, Moore shared a personal experience, stating, “COVID was a real thing. My eldest son faced a life-threatening situation and spent a week in the hospital on a ventilator.”
