Salter complained before the committee about the polluting effects of petrochemical products. According to the New York Post, Higgins asked what she intended to do with the products she owned and created in the petrochemical industry. The exchange got more and more heated and loud.
Salter told Higgins to “search your heart and understand why the EPA knows that toxic petrochemical facilities are some of the most ‘toxic’ polluting facilities in the world and are killing black people throughout Louisiana.”
Higgins responded, “My good lady, I’m trying to give you the floor, boo!”
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The exchange became even more heated as Salter persisted in playing the race card, maintaining that climate change caused by oil and gas companies significantly harmed black and poor people in Louisiana. Higgins referred to Salter as a “young lady” and suggested she had “a lot of noise, but you got no answers.” Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, had none of it. When it came time for her to ask Salter questions, she referred to the exchange she had with Higgins, criticizing what she viewed as her colleague’s rude and ungentlemanly behavior.
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“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 that I have seen them disrespect you today. I do not care what party they are [in]. I’ve never seen anything like that. And for the gentleman of Louisiana, and the comfort he felt in yelling at you like that. There’s more than one way to get the point across. And, frankly, men who treat women like that in public, I fear how they treat them in private. We can be better than this. We don’t have to resort to yelling.”
The Daily Wire account of the exchange suggests that Salter yelled louder at Higgins than the congressman yelled at her. He repeatedly tried to get her to answer the questions he had put to her, but to no avail.