Nancy Mace calls Marjorie Taylor Greene a ‘religious bigot’ amid Twitter feud

Republican Reps Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene engaged in a war of tweets about the other’s conservative credentials.

The row began after Rep Lauren Boebert of Colorado made Islamophobic remarks about Democratic Rep Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, one of two Muslim women elected to Congress, calling her a member of “the jihad squad.”

In response, Ms Mace criticised Ms Boebert on CNN Monday.

“We have a responsibility to lower the temperature and this does not do that,” she said. “I didn’t come to Congress to throw bombs on Twitter, to take advantage of people by saying crazy things to raise money or to be a comedian.”

In response, Ms Greene, who has made Islamophobic remarks on multiple occasions, criticised Ms Mace, calling her “the trash in the GOP Conference”.

“Never attacked by Democrats or RINO’s (same thing) because she is not conservative, she’s pro-abort,” Ms Greene said.

Ms Mace was raped in high school and dropped out afterward. In response, she has said that she supports “fetal heartbeat” legislation but also supports exemptions for victims of rape and incest, which she did as a state legislator, her website says.

“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,” she tweeted. “What I’m not is a religious bigot (or racist). You might want to try that over there in your little “league.”

Ms Mace also corrected the Georgia Republican’s grammar by saying “*you’re.” In a follow-up tweet, Ms Mace used a series of emojis to say that Ms Greene was “bats**t crazy.”

At issue is the fact that Ms Mace has occasionally spoken out against former president Donald Trump. After the 6 January riot, Ms Mace said she no longer supported Mr Trump.

“But all of that, his entire legacy, was wiped out yesterday,” she told CNN at the time. “And we've got to start over.”

While Ms Mace did not support Mr Trump’s impeachment, she supported censuring him. Similarly, she voted to hold former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to provide evidence to the select committee investigating the riot.

Mr Trump has taken notice and has called for a primary challenger to the South Carolina freshman.

Later in the day, Ms Greene tweeted that she spoke with Mr Trump about Ms Mace, specifically highlighting the latter’s criticism of the former president.

“I absolutely love President Trump,” she tweeted. “He’s our leader!”

In response, Ms Mace tweeted that Ms Greene “couldn’t take the heat.”

“Don’t look now, but it’s MTG unable to take the heat, running to the principle’s office to tattletale because she can’t stand on her own two feet,” she said, though she later corrected for her own grammatical error misspelling “principal.”