AOC Rips Into Rep. Clay Higgins for Yelling at a Woman

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) completely lost his temper during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday morning, leaving Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to apologize to the witness on his behalf. “Men who treat women like that in public, I fear how they treat them in private,” she said to a room full of colleagues and press.

The hearing was about the climate crisis, examining how oil companies advertise to curry political favor and influence. (Our sister publication Gizmodo’s Earther and their consequential investigation into how big oil advertises in Washington was cited during the hearing.) It’s clear that Higgins is in the tank for big oil, no matter who would’ve testified.

“Everything you have. Your clothes, your glasses, the car you got here on, your phone, the table you’re sitting at, the chair, the carpet under your feet, everything you’ve got is petrochemical products. What would you do with that? Tell the world!” Higgins told witness Raya Salter, a member of New York State Climate Action Council.

Salter managed to respond, “If I had that power, actually I don’t need that power because what I would do is ask you, sir, from Louisiana,” before Higgins kept shouting about petrochemicals.

“My good lady, I’m trying to give you the floor, boo,” Higgins said.

He then demanded to know what she would do with all the products already in existence that were made with petrochemicals. “I’m going to give this young lady an opportunity. You may not like it, but America needs to hear it. You’ve got no answer, do you, about what to do with petrochemical products, so I’ll move on,” he said.

Upon reclaiming his time, Higgins showed how high on the the Genesis supply he really is. “Do you care about the planet, good lady? Do you have ecological concern for real? From a biblical perspective, we were given, the Lord gave us dominion over the planet and the creatures thereof,” he said, adding that “from a biblical perspective, I am an environmentalist.”

Higgins’ final word on the matter: “You know what you got young lady? You got a lot of noise, but you got no answers.”

When it was finally Ocasio-Cortez’s five-minute turn, she addressed Salter, instead of starting with her line of questioning. “Unfortunately, I wish I could use all my timing on questioning, but I want to address Ms. Salter directly. I just want you to know that in the four years that I’ve sat on this committee, I have never seen members of Congress—Republican or Democrat—disrespect a witness in the way I have seen them disrespect you today. I do not care what party they are in. I’ve never seen anything like that,” she said. “For the gentleman of Louisiana and the comfort he felt in yelling at you like that, there’s more than one way to get a point across.”

Then she put into words a truth many people know. “Frankly, men who treat women like that in public, I fear how they treat them in private,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Finally, Ocasio-Cortez added: “I would hope that someone would issue you an apology, but because I don’t believe he will, I want to apologize to you about the conduct of this committee and what we just witnessed.”

Higgins fired back with a tweet calling Salter “unhinged”:

Someone is unhinged here, and it’s not the witness. Watch the whole exchange below—but turn the volume down first.