GOP lawmaker defends her record from Marjorie Taylor Greene attack after criticizing Boebert

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene attacked fellow House Republican Nancy Mace on Tuesday, after Mace condemned inflammatory and anti-Muslim comments made by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert.

On Twitter, Greene told Mace to “back up off” Boebert, while accusing Mace of not being conservative and attacking her as “the trash in the GOP Conference” and that “she’s pro-abort.”

Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, responded to Greene by correcting the Georgia congresswoman’s spelling mistake and then defending her own record as a conservative.

“And, while I’m correcting you, I’m a pro-life fiscal conservative who was attacked by the Left all weekend (as I often am) as I defied China while in Taiwan,” Mace wrote on Twitter Tuesday, referring to a recent congressional delegation visit to the island. “What I’m not is a religious bigot (or racist). You might want to try that over there in your little ‘league.'”

Mace again defended herself later Tuesday, calling Greene a liar for claiming that Mace supported abortion rights, when Mace supports abortion only in cases of rape and incest — a position rooted in her own experience as a survivor of sexual assault.

“[Greene] said today that I was pro-abortion, which could not be further from the truth,” Mace said on Fox Business. “I voted to defund Planned Parenthood, I voted for South Carolina’s fetal heartbeat bill. There are exceptions in that bill for women who are victims of rape and incest because I put them in there.”

In her interview with Fox’s Neil Cavuto, Mace said she would not “put up with” Greene’s description of her record.

“I was raped when I was 16, Neil,” Mace added. “I dropped out of school, and it had a devastating impact on my life, and most of America agrees with me on the protections for victims of incest and victims of rape, and I, quite frankly, have a zero-tolerance policy for people like Marjorie Taylor Greene who think 9/11 is a hoax and has been lying about my record and others.”

The public spat between the two prominent Republican freshmen members of the House exemplifies the growing divides between the party’s moderate and fringe wings. It also shows the difficulty House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy faces in uniting his conference ahead of the 2022 midterms, when Republicans hope to win back the majority in the chamber.

Mace on Sunday had said she absolutely “100 percent” condemns Boebert’s anti-Muslim comments and that she was disappointed by the Colorado Republican’s remarks.

“I have time after time condemned my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for racist tropes and remarks that I find disgusting, and this is no different than any others,” she told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, adding, “We have a responsibility to lower the temperature, and this does not do that.”

Video recently surfaced of Boebert making anti-Muslim comments about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, implying that Omar, who is one of two Muslim women in Congress, was mistaken for a terrorist in a Capitol Hill elevator.

Boebert apologized on Twitter Friday to “anyone in the Muslim community I offended” and said she reached out to Omar’s office to speak with the Minnesota congresswoman directly.

The two lawmakers had a contentious phone call on Monday that did little to ease the tensions between them.

Omar said she hung up on Boebert after she “refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments.” Boebert confirmed that Omar had asked for a public apology, but that she instead called on Omar to issue a public apology of her own for prior comments that Boebert accused of being “anti-American” and “anti-Semitic.”

McCarthy has not condemned Boebert’s comments but said in a statement that he spoke to Boebert on Friday in the wake of her comments and encouraged her to meet with Omar.

Meanwhile, Greene has a history of incendiary and violent rhetoric and was stripped of her House committee assignments in February.

McCarthy previously promised to reinstate Greene on committees, along with Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona who was censured over a video depicting violence against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden.

Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who slammed Boebert as “TRASH” in the wake of her remarks about Omar surfacing, has criticized McCarthy for “catering” to the party’s far-right flank and warned that his actions are alienating moderates.

This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

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CNN’s Sarah Fortinsky and Sonnet Swire contributed to this report.