Tlaib, Donalds get in shouting match during DC oversight hearing

Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) engaged in a fierce shouting match Thursday after the progressive Democrat urged her colleagues to resist President Trump’s “fascist takeover” in Washington, D.C., during a congressional oversight hearing.

Tlaib attacked her GOP colleagues for depicting Washington as a crime-ridden and dilapidated city, saying that’s not the reality she sees on the ground. She also accused Republicans of merely parroting talking points they read about the city elsewhere.

“It's really important we need to stand up against this fascist takeover — that's not a bad word. It's a fact,” Tlaib said, during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing about crime and the federal crackdown in the nation’s capital.

“And here in D.C. and across the country, it is so incredibly important, Mr. Chair, that this committee does not allow rhetoric that … paints Washington, D.C., in a way that you all haven't really truly seen,” she continued. “You're just reading it. No, you're just reading it or something off of some —.”

The exchange escalated after Donalds, a Trump ally running to be Florida's governor, objected to Tlaib’s use of the phrase “fascist takeover” to characterize Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and federal law enforcement agents in the nation’s capital.

Donalds interrupted to ask whether Tlaib would yield to a question.

Tlaib, whose allotted time had already expired, acknowledged she was out of time but continued talking, even as committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) informed the congresswoman that her time had expired.

“It is expired, but Mr. Chair, but you all live here, and you're not telling people the beautiful parts that you do see in our nation's capital,” Tlaib said, as Comer reiterated her time’s expired. “And no, no, no, it's just wrong that we’re doing this. It’s wrong.”

The disagreement escalated from there, as the two members of Congress shouted over each other.

“Chairman, I think it’s insane if the gentlelady won’t have an argument, but she’s going to refer to me and some of my colleagues like we were from the Third Reich,” Donalds said, apparently referencing Tlaib’s use of “fascist” to describe Trump’s D.C. crackdown.

“This is insane. It’s insane. It’s insane. It’s insane,” Donalds added.

“Do I look like a member of the Third Reich to you, Ms. Tlaib? Is that what I look like to you?” Donalds, who is Black, asked Tlaib.

Tlaib accused Donalds of labeling “kids in Washington, D.C. as a bunch of criminals." The House earlier this week passed two D.C. crime bills that would lower the age that juveniles can be tried as adults to 14 years old for some violent offenses, among other provisions.

She also invoked reports of an alleged “ghost voting” incident earlier this year, when Donalds was recorded to have voted on the House floor at the same time he was reportedly attending an event outside of Washington, D.C.

“Please, oh please,” Tlaib said. “You’re the one taking your voting card giving it to somebody, committing a crime.”

The two members did not address the others’ concerns or accusations.

“You hold yourself accountable before you talk about Washington, D.C.,” Tlaib said to Donalds.

“Hold myself accountable? Hold your own self accountable, how about that? Hold your own self accountable,” Donalds responded.