Dems defend Pelosi after Ocasio- Cortez says she targets ‘ newly elected women of color’
WASHINGTON — Several black and Latino Democrats rallied around House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez accused her of targeting “newly elected women of color” through remarks dismissing their political influence inside the House.
The suggestion from the outspoken liberal freshman, made in a Washington Post article published Wednesday, stunned those Democrats, and it compounded their lingering anger after a top aide for Ms. OcasioCortez, D- N. Y., publicly accused some colleagues last month of racist actions for supporting a compromise border spending bill.
“What a weak argument, because you can’t get your way?” Rep. William Lacy Clay, D- Mo., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said of Ms. OcasioCortez’s remark. “And because you are getting pushback, you resort to use the race card? … Unbelievable to me.”
Ms. Pelosi, D- Calif., refused to respond directly to Ms. Ocasio- Cortez’s accusation Thursday but said she had to speak out to defend her moderate members after the aide’s tweet.
Saikat Chakrabarti, Ms. Ocasio- Cortez’s chief of staff, referred to members of moderate Democratic groups in a tweet last month as “New Southern Democrats” who are “hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.”
He deleted the tweet but posted others saying the moderates’ actions “still enable a racist system.”
The tweet and Ms. OcasioCortez’s latest remark have inserted a racial dimension into the feud between Ms. Pelosi and “the Squad” — freshman Reps. Ilhan Omar, D- Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D- Mass., Rashida Tlaib, D- Mich., and Ms. Ocasio- Cortez. Ms. Pelosi told The New York Times that the four “didn’t have any following,” after their votes against a Democratic-crafted bill on the border crisis.