Olivia Burke
No, you're not experiencing déjà vu—Marjorie Taylor Greene did have an almost identical exchange with another British journalist before her recent clash with Martha Kelner.
It seems the US congresswoman is quite a fan of telling UK correspondents to 'go back to their own country' as she's used the exact same line in the past.
She recycled it once again while shutting down Sky News reporter Kelner on Wednesday (26 March) as she dodged questions about the Signal group chat scandal, which has rocked the White House.
Advert
The tense exchange unfolded in the US Capitol Visitor Center after Greene chaired a DOGE committee hearing titled 'Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the heads of NPR and PBS Accountable'.
The Georgia representative, 50, seemed to become incensed after hearing Kelner's accent and she quickly asked the journalist to clarify what 'country she was from'.
After Kelner confirmed she hails from the UK, Greene bluntly told her: "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?
"You should care about your own borders."
Advert
She later continued by saying that the topic of the conversation should be 'about fake news that was funded with federal funding from American taxpayers', adding: "Not journalists from the UK that should care about their own country."
Basically, Greene seems to think that Brits should keep their nose out of Uncle Sam's business - and that seems to go for journalists from any other outlets, too.
Back in 2022, Greene lashed out at another reporter from the UK who questioned her stance on US gun laws, and for context, Greene's bio on X used to state she was '100 percent Pro-Gun' as of 2024 (via The Independent).
Channel 4 journalist Siobhan Kennedy quizzed the congresswoman about her reluctance to support reforms surrounding gun ownership in wake of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that had taken place a month earlier.
Advert
Salvador Ramos, 18, carried out a mass shooting on 24 May, 2022, at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers, while injuring another 17 victims.
The devastating incident came just ten days after a mass shooting in Buffalo carried out by Payton S. Gendron, 18, who chillingly live streamed some of the attack which left ten people dead.
Greene remained steadfast though and insisted it was her 'job to defend the Second Amendment', while telling Kennedy: "You may not understand simply because you are not an American, but we fully understand because we're proud American gun owners."
In response, the Channel 4 correspondent said: "We don’t have guns in the UK, that is true, but we don’t have mass shootings either. And our children aren’t scared to go to school."
Advert
Greene then hit back saying: "You have mass stabbings, lady. You have all kinds of murder and you’ve got laws against that," while Kennedy explained these incidents were much less common that gun violence in the US.
The congresswoman wasn't going to take this lying down though, as she then told the journalist: "Well, you can go back to your country and worry about your no guns. We like ours here."
Greene was clearly proud of her comeback, as just hours after the exchange, she shared footage of it on her X account.
While sharing the video, she wrote: "When British press wants to argue about our God-given American gun rights, my answer is: 'go back to your own country'."
Advert
Kennedy also took to the social media platform at the time to share her thoughts on what Greene had said to her.
She said (via The Independent): "[Greene] isn’t happy with me for pointing out that the proposed gun legislation is not about taking her guns away!
"Nor is knife crime in the UK in any way comparable with gun crime here. There are no 'mass stabbings' in the UK. Yet here kids are frightened to go to school?"
So the lesson here is - if you're British and ever find yourself having to ask Greene some difficult questions, you're probably best preparing to be told to return to your motherland in a not so polite way.