Yes, We Know Your Heart, Congresswoman

 

Danielle Battaglia gives us what is most often missing in any coverage of the legislative career of Madam Virginia Foxx -- some eye-witness reading of body language. Those of us who knew Foxx back in the day when she was an assistant dean at AppState already recognize the bullying personality, paired with the odd ability to impersonate tears on cue. I always noted that her eyes were never wet in those displays. Considering her reputation for brusque rudeness, she's brittle and avoids direct confrontation with people angry about her politics. I've seen her literally break into a sprint to escape the microphone of a reporter.

No doubt she's more formidable now. Also oddly weak, having sold out any claim to the moral high ground by literally mortgaging her morals to a strong man.

Battaglia was there in the hearing room for the Rules Committee Monday night, with Rep. Foxx chairing the meeting, when the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jim McGovern, of Massachusetts, proposed an amendment to a bill on cryptocurrency that forced the committee’s Republicans to decide whether the Trump administration must release the Epstein files. Battaglia watched Foxx's reaction:

Rep. Virginia Foxx sat at the front Monday night and smiled slowly before her face stiffened. She pinched her thumb against her pointer and middle fingers and rubbed them together.

She started to speak, just for a moment, but instead clenched her jaw. 

The first amendment failed in a 5-6 vote, with Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, agreeing to the release. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, withheld his vote. 

McGovern tried a second related amendment to the Epstein files, including releasing whether any files had been destroyed. The vote failed again, this time 8-4. 

“You, with your vote, will be preventing even the consideration of the release of the Epstein files,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democrat from New Mexico, told the Republicans before the vote. “You will be voting against the release of the Epstein files. You have the power, let’s see how you vote.” 

It was that statement that caused Foxx to tense up. She narrowed her gaze on Leger Fernandez and said, “None of us like to be told why we are voting a certain way .... You don’t know our minds. You don’t know our hearts.”