MAGA ‘attack dog’ Marjorie Taylor Greene reportedly told a Sky News reporter to ‘go back to your country,’ revealing an underlying anti-British sentiment in Trump’s White House, as per the journalist at the center of the incident speaking to MailOnline.
Martha Kelner, aged 35, shared that she has been receiving numerous messages from Americans expressing apologies for the extreme outburst by the MAGA figure after a DOGE hearing in Congress.
MTG, the familiar moniker used for Marjorie Taylor Greene in the US, engaged in a spirited tirade, dismissing Kelner’s opinion saying ‘we don’t give a c**p about your opinion,’ and suggesting she ‘go back to your country’ when questioned about the Signal scandal.
Martha Kelner, who says one of the Republican’s minders physically blocked her off, joked that she’d been ‘Marjoried’ but that she’s not the first – and won’t be the last.
Speaking to MailOnline from Washington DC today, she said: ‘It was an exercise in deflection. I did expect her to take that tone with me. I didn’t take it personally and I’m not a victim.
‘The footage has gone viral and had millions and millions of views here in the US and in the UK. I’ve had messages from people all around the world – but particularly from Americans, saying “We’re embarrassed” and that “she doesn’t represent our views”.’
She added: ‘There’s an anti-British and an anti-Europe thing in this administration. Her shouting at a journalist and being so rude in one of America’s most important institutions is not a good look’.
Ms Taylor Greene had demanded to know where Ms Kelner was from as soon as she asked about the Signal scandal and whether the message leak put American lives at risk.
And when Ms Kelner said she was British, the far-Right politician and conspiracy theorist from Georgia had told her: ‘We don’t give a c**p about your opinion and your reporting. Why don’t you go back to your country? Don’t you care about how your women are raped by migrants?’.
Sky News’ US Correspondent then followed MTG and kept asking the same question repeatedly.
It led to Ms Taylor Greene accusing Britain of putting lives at risk in Ukraine.
Despite Donald Trump being an avowed Anglophile who worshipped the late Queen Elizabeth II, MTG’s outburst shows what the wider MAGA movement thinks of Britain, Martha says.
Martha refers to JD Vance’s speech in Munich last month where he claimed immigration and the erosion of free speech pose a greater threat to the UK and Europe than Russia.
‘Marjorie Taylor Greene knew where I was from. There’s an anti-British and an anti-Europe thing in this administration’, she said.
‘In many ways it just echoes what JD Vance was saying when he appeared at the Munich Security Conference, which is that he doesn’t particularly value the relationship with Europe, and perhaps the relationship with Britain as well’.
She also pointed to Vance and Pete Hegseth saying they ‘loathed’ the ‘pathetic’ continent in a leaked group chat about Europe.
‘You can see that from the way talk about Europe in their text exchange, which obviously they thought was private’, she said.
MTG went nuclear after hearing Martha was not American.
She said angrily: ‘You should care about your own borders. Let me tell you something, do you care about people from your country?
‘What about all the women that are raped by migrants – do you care? Don’t you care about how your women are raped by migrants?’
She finished: ‘You’re done. I don’t care about your fake news’.
MTG had just chaired a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hearing where she accused NPR and PBS of using taxpayers’ money to push left-wing propaganda.
Many have remarked on how calm the reporter stayed during the outburst.
‘I did expect her to take that tone with me’, Martha said.
‘I’ve seen her speaking to numerous journalists like that and when she gets a question that she doesn’t like, or a line of questioning that she doesn’t like, she goes on the attack, and often it is telling a journalist “to go back to your country’ or “we’re not interested in your opinion”.
‘I steeled myself for the possibility that she wouldn’t like me being there or like me asking those sort of questions before I’d even opened my mouth.
‘That’s probably why I felt so calm because it’s not a surprise, really, it’s just the same old frayed playbook of crisis management, which is deny, deflect and attack.
‘You have to stay sort of dispassionate. And these are important questions. This is a major communications failing by some of the most key members of the Trump administration, and it was important that she answered those questions.
‘It was really great that the US journalist in the clip backed me up as well, because she refused to answer the question and then said: ‘I’m going to take a question from an American journalist’. And he said: ‘Actually we want the answers to those questions’.
When MTG ended the press conference abruptly, Martha and the camera went with her.
‘I followed because she’d still not answered the questions. I think you owe it to your audience to keep asking those questions until you get an answer that is satisfying and just attacking me is not addressing the issue at hand’, she said.
‘Yes, she’s very vocal, but she does also represent the MAGA movement.
‘She is arguably their most visible spokesperson and she represents the views of a lot of people in the Trump Administration.
‘What they’re doing at the moment is attacking journalists and trying to discredit journalists.
‘You’ve seen that with the way that they’ve attacked Jeffrey Goldberg, who has been pretty responsible in in his reporting in The Atlantic.
‘It was an exercise in deflection but attacking journalists is not going to make us go away. We’re still going to be there. We’re still going to be asking the questions.
Ms Kelner says that she has had many more positive than negative messages in the past 24 hours.
‘I’ve had people apologising for how she interacted with me. But to be honest it’s just doing my job’, she said.
‘I’ve obviously had messages from people saying she’s got a point, and negative messages, but nothing definitely outweighed by the amount of sort of positive responses and people saying that she doesn’t represent them’.
‘There’s not been any death threats or anything like that.
‘But I’ve been quite heartened by the fact that I think a lot of people are messaging to say “thank you for keeping asking the questions” and “we want answers to them”.’
Some have questioned whether the White House could try to make an example of the Sky News reporter.
‘I haven’t heard from the White House. I don’t expect to. I suspect the way the Trump Administration’s handling will continue to be that they’re trying to tough it out’, she said.
