The reporter who was told to ‘go back to your own country’ by Marjorie Taylor Greene has opened up about the tense exchange.
Martha Kelner, a 35-year-old Sky News correspondent, went viral on Wednesday (March 26) after her tense exchange with the 50-year-old Georgia congresswoman.
The moment began when Kelner attempted to question Greene about US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s involvement in a Signal group chat blunder – where The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added by security adviser Mike Waltz during conversations about military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
Rather than answer, the representative turned the moment into a personal attack. “What country are you from?” After Kelner answered she was from the UK, Greene shot back: “We don’t give a cr*p about your opinion and your reporting.
“Why don’t you go back to your country, where you have a major migrant problem? You should care about your own borders,” she blasted.
The British journalist pushed forward, asking if Greene cared about American lives potentially being endangered due to the Signal slip-up.
Greene didn’t address the question – instead launching into another tirade: “Let me tell you something – do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants? You’re done. I don’t care about your fake news.”
In new comments to Daily Mail, the journalist opened up about the incident, revealing that she wasn’t surprised by the outburst.
“I did expect her to take that tone with me. I didn’t take it personally, and I’m not a victim,” she said. “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.’”
Footage of the moment shows Kelner holding her ground, continuing to ask questions even as Greene doubled down. Now, she’s explaining why she believes the confrontation played out exactly as it did.
“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,” she said.
The reporter pointed to Vice President JD Vance’s recent comments about Britain and Europe, saying Greene’s remarks “echo” what he was saying. “Which is that he doesn’t particularly value the relationship with Europe, and perhaps the relationship with Britain as well,” she added.
This wasn’t Kelner’s first encounter with a hostile official, and she’d already seen Greene use similar tactics with others.
“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,'” she shared.
“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,” she continued. “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.”
Kelner stood firm, insisting her questions were legitimate and important. She also gave credit to the US reporter who backed her up in real-time and continued pressing the congresswoman after she refused to answer.
“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,” she said. “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.”
Despite the hostility, Kelner says the support she’s received has drowned out the hate.
She was “just doing her job,” and says she’s been flooded with messages from people “apologising for how she interacted with me”.
“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,” she told the outlet.
The reporter shared that she hasn’t been contacted by 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 concluded.
