Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Wednesday told a British journalist to "go back to your country" when questioned about leaked Signal messages related to US military operations in Yemen.
The exchange occurred as Sky News correspondent Martha Kelner attempted to ask Ms Greene about Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's involvement in divulging classified details of the March 15 airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen. Ms Greene, fresh from a congressional hearing on allegations of media bias at NPR and PBS, cut Ms Kelner off upon hearing her accent.
"Wait. What country are you from?" Ms Greene asked. When the journalist responded that she was from the United Kingdom, Ms Greene refused to let her finish the question. "OK, we don't give a crap about your opinion and your reporting. Why don't you go back to your country, where you have a major migrant problem?" Ms Greene said.
As Ms Kelner pressed on, asking about the risks posed to American lives by the leaked messages, Ms Greene fired back, "Do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?" She then dismissed Kelner entirely, stating, "You're done. I don't care about your fake news," before demanding an "American journalist" to ask her a question.
The controversy comes from leaked Signal messages that revealed classified details about a March 15 US military strike on the Houthis in Yemen. Defence Secretary Hegseth allegedly disclosed operational specifics, including targets and attack plans, in an encrypted group chat.
The messages were exposed when Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, mistakenly included in the chat, published an article detailing the breach.
The next reporter, Ms Greene, called on immediately repeated Ms Kelner's question, forcing the congresswoman to respond. "You want to know about complete disregard for operational security? You should talk about the Biden administration and how they ripped our borders open to terrorist cartels, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across our borders for four years," she said. "The Trump administration is doing a great job, and I stand by their statements."
Despite the backlash, Pete Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the information shared was not classified.
