As one of MSNBC’s most prominent news anchors, Chris Hayes is typically the consummate professional. But even he couldn’t keep a straight face on Tuesday night when reporting on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest attack on the English language, in which the Gazpacho Queen referred to a petri dish as a “peach tree dish.”
In introducing the clip of Greene speaking to her followers, Hayes wasn’t really even sure how to describe her. Because while she is indeed a Republican congresswoman, Hayes noted that “she has no committee assignments, after having them all stripped. And so she really doesn’t do anything for her constituency. She certainly doesn’t, like, write laws”—which is something for which we can all be grateful.
What she does do, Hayes noted, is maintain a very active life on social media. Over the weekend, Hayes explained:
[Greene] had a livestream on her Facebook page and it was the usual mix of bizarre and offensive conspiracy theories on everything from the monkeypox virus to the LGBTQ community. And while everything she said is, of course, bonkers, she managed a bit of a Triple Lindy in this one with an assault on reality, science, and the English language all at once.
Of course, Hayes was talking about Greene’s insistence that the government (which, remember, she is a part of) is attempting to surveil us at all times. And is monitoring what we eat, and making sure it’s good for us. According to Greene, if you try to eat a hamburger versus the “fake meat” that Bill Gates is growing in a “peach tree dish… you’ll probably get a little zap inside your body and that’s saying, ‘No, no—don’t eat a real cheeseburger! You need to eat the fake meat! The fake burger. From Bill Gates.” She then stated that they also want to know when you’re going to the bathroom “and if your bowel movements are on time and consistent.”
When the camera cut back to Hayes, he couldn’t even look at it as he was laughing so hard. And admitted that about 10 percent of him “thinks it’s a bit, like she’s doing it on purpose? I don’t know.”
Hayes assured his viewers that none of what Greene was suggesting was true. “Gates is not working to build a global surveillance to track when you use the bathroom and zap you for eating meat. But it is very funny that a sitting member of Congress doesn’t know what a petri dish is.”
You can watch the full clip above.