After a heated meeting with her Democratic caucus yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is facing new opposition and racially charged attacks from new members.
After being repeatedly told to keep family business and disputes behind closed doors during the meeting, freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran to the Washington Post to accuse Pelosi of singling out women of color.
“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post. “But the persistent singling out . . . it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful . . . the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”
Today during her weekly press conference, which was supposed to be about protecting Obamacare. Pelosi was asked about the ongoing feud and tension. Taking her own advice, she wasn't interested in discussing further with reporters.
"I said what I'm going to say in caucus, that's where this is appropriate and I said what I'm going to say in the caucus," Pelosi said when asked about AOC's accusations of racism. "They took offense because I addressed, on the request of my members, an offensive tweet that came out of one of the members offices that references our blue dogs and our new Dems essentially as segregationists. Our members took offense at that, I addressed that. How they're interpreting it and carrying it to a n ew place is up to them but I'm not going to be discussing it any further."
When asked again to address the issue, Pelosi bit back.
"I said what I'm going to say. With all do respect maybe you didn't hear what I said. I said what I'm going to say on the subject," she said. "We respect the value of every member of our caucus. The diversity of it all is a wonderful thing. Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power. We have a big fight and we're in the arena."
Join now as I speak with reporters about the @realDonaldTrump Admin’s work to eliminate protections for the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, & other news this week. https://t.co/ydmGNNhktc
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 11, 2019
Should we have sympathy? Nah.
I don’t feel sorry for Nancy Pelosi for one second re: her fued with AOC squad. She made this nasty identity politics bed, time to lie in it.
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 11, 2019