Connolly rips Wilson over ‘you lie’ during Blinken hearing

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) on Monday blasted Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) over his “You lie,” interruption in 2009 of a speech by former President Obama to Congress, arguing he had little standing to now criticize Biden officials of lying. 

The remarks from Connolly came during a contentious hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the troubled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken came under tough questioning from Wilson and other Republicans on the panel.

“I guess I would say to my friend from South Carolina, if I were the member of Congress who committed one of the most grievous acts at a State of the Union address, when the president of the United States, Mr. Obama, was our guest, to shout out ‘you lie,’ I might take more care about enumerating other alleged lies in a hearing with the secretary of State,” Connolly said after Wilson’s remarks.

Wilson criticized the Biden administration’s pullout as a “surrender in Afghanistan” and read an editorial from the New York Post that accused President Biden and other officials of lying about the withdrawal. 

Rep. Connolly to Rep. Wilson: “If I were the member of Congress who committed one of the most grievous acts in a State of the Union address… to shout out, “you lie,” I might take more care about enumerating other alleged lies in a hearing with the secretary of state.” pic.twitter.com/zmvlZ16LC3

— The Hill (@thehill) September 13, 2021

He also called on Blinken to resign.

Connolly pushed back on GOP criticisms of the administration’s handling of Afghanistan, calling it a “salad mix of selective facts.”

Wilson is best known for his outburst during the debate over Obama’s health care plan when he shouted “you lie” to the president as he addressed a joint session of Congress. 

The breaking of protocol during Obama’s speech was breathtaking at the time, though more than a decade later the general civility in Washington, D.C., and in Congress specifically has fallen further than where it stood in 2009.