During a fiery House hearing on federal funding for public broadcasting, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett didn’t mince words. The Texas Democrat directly confronted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over her efforts to defund NPR and PBS, calling the move a dangerous attack on independent journalism.

The clash came amid renewed Republican attempts to strip funding from public media organizations they accuse of liberal bias. Crockett, a vocal advocate for press freedom, argued that defunding NPR and PBS would silence vital sources of information for millions of Americans, particularly those in rural and underserved communities. The exchange underscored the deepening divide over the role of public institutions in American democracy.

“Free speech is not about whatever it is that y’all want somebody to say,” the Texas Democrat told Greene, who was leading the hearing.

“The idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bull---t,” Crockett continued. “We need to stop playing because that’s what y’all are doing in here. You don’t want to hear the opinions of anybody else.”

Greene, the chair of the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), called out to NPR and PBS, claiming the platforms should be defunded because of inflammatory content. 

Both platforms have provided free edutainment content to a wide range of audiences for decades.

During the meeting, Greene displayed a photo of drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess (LHM), calling the entertainer a “child predator” and “monster” who shouldn’t be platformed by PBS. LHM previously appeared on a show on PBS’ New York City affiliate, WNET.

“As a mother, if I had walked in my living room or one of my children’s bedrooms and seen this child predator and this monster targeting my children, I would become unglued,” Green said.

The Daily Beast reports that the performer does not have a criminal history. 

“That’s repulsive, that’s not what children ages 3 to 8 should ever be watching,” Green said after playing a short clip of the segment LHM appeared in. 

Democrats hit back, stating that the Republicans’ outrage was merely a distraction from The Atlantic‘s bombshell SignalGate report, which highlighted a gross security breach. The publication’s editor-in-chief was added to a group chat within the Signal app, where war plans were being discussed. 

“They would rather post up against Big Bird {a character on popular PBS show Sesame Street} than deal with that issue,” Stephen Lynch (D-MA). “If shame was still a thing, this hearing would be shameful.”