Congressional tension tests Democrats’ unity
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez don’t talk to each other much. But lately they’re speaking at one another in a way that threatens Democratic unity and underscores broader tensions reshaping their party.
Pelosi chided AOC, as she’s called, in a newspaper interview, and the first-term New York congresswoman responded pointedly on Twitter. Their power struggle has spilled open in what could be a momentary blip or a foreshadowing of divisions to come.
“I have no regrets about anything. Regrets is not what I do,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday while leaving a closed-door meeting of House Democrats.
Yet inside that lengthy session, Pelosi, D-Calif., also struck a more measured tone. She reminded lawmakers that their unity as the House majority is their power, especially as they confront Republicans, particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Without that unity, we are playing completely into the hands of the other people,” Pelosi said, according to a person who was in the meeting room but was not authorized to talk publicly about the internal discussion.
“We’re a family and we have our moments,” Pelosi told colleagues. “So, again, you got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK.”
Pelosi added: “Make me the target because we have important fish to fry.”
Ocasio- Cortez arrived late to the session and did not speak, according to a second person who attended the session.
Other lawmakers, including some first-term members who helped flip Republican seats to the Democratic column in 2018, also made the case for sticking on the same team and keeping the internal drama private.
It all started with the rare public rebuke between Pelosi and Ocasio- Cortez, played out in the media, that’s now challenging the House agenda and rippling into the 2020 presidential campaign. A test will come later this week on a mustpass defense bill that the White House has threatened to veto.
The tension between the most powerful Democrat in the country and one of the party’s newest and most liberal members embodies a debate over how best, in style and substance, to defeat President Donald Trump. Each side thinks it’s right.
For Pelosi allies, her offhand dismissal of OcasioCortez and three other firstterm lawmakers who opposed a border security package last month was a necessary comeuppance for “the squad” of newcomers who are trying to push the party leftward.
“These people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi told The New York Times. “But they didn’t have any following.”
In the speaker’s world, they lack what Pelosi often calls “the currency of the realm” — the power to turn their high-volume activism into a coalition of votes to pass legislation or, in their case, to stop it.
But for fans of OcasioCortez, including some of her millions of social media followers, Pelosi’s remarks were nothing short of a patronizing slap-back to four women of color who represent the future of the party and an example of its generational and demographic transition. Their four lonely votes against the bill were portrayed a principled stand, with more to come.
“To dismiss any member’s force, and particularly these four members who do have a tremendous following ... I think is not the best thing,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Behind the scenes, some on Capitol Hill are quietly appreciative of Pelosi’s tough-love approach to Ocasio-Cortez, and Reps. Ilhan Omar, D- Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
Lawmakers and freshmen from more centristleaning districts than those of the four, including regions Trump won in 2018, don’t want the House majority to be defined by the liberal flank as they face voters for reelection.
While those more moderate views may have helped Democrats win the majority, liberal activists fear they won’t necessarily motivate or energize the party ahead of the 2020 election.
Brian Fallon, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Pelosi’s comments have riled the party’s left flank, and activists question why she’s fighting with the newcomers when she should be confronting, if not impeaching, Trump.
Pelosi’s background runs strong in the liberal community, he said, so “it’s not enough to undo the relationship because she has deep ties.”
“But there is frustration,” he said.