Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
On House floor, Dems call out verbal assaults against women
WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s outrage over a Republican lawmaker’s verbal assault broadened into an extraordinary moment on the House floor Thursday as she and other Democrats assailed a sexist culture of “accepting violence and violent language against women” whose adherents include President Donald Trump.
A day after rejecting an offer of contrition from Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., for his language during this week’s Capitol steps confrontation, Ocasio-Cortez and more than a dozen colleagues cast the incident as all-too-common behavior by men, including Trump and other Republicans.
“This issue is not about one incident. It is cultural,” said Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., calling it a culture “of accepting a violence and violent language against women, an entire structure of power that supports that.”
The outpouring, with several female lawmakers saying they’d routinely encountered such treatment, came in an election year in which polls show women leaning against Trump, who has a history of mocking women.
“I personally have experienced a lifetime of insults, racism and sexism,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, DCalif. “And believe me, this did not stop after being elected to public office.”
Trump was captured in a 2005 tape boasting about physically abusing women, and his disparagement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has included calling her “crazy.”
In an apparent reference to that tape, which drew attention during the 2016 presidential campaign, Ocasio-Cortez
said men accost women “with a sense of impunity” every day, including when “individuals who hold the highest office in this land admit, admit to hurting women.”
The lawmakers who joined Ocasio-Cortez represented a wide range of Democrats — including No. 2 House leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, a moderate 20-term veteran — underscored their unity over an issue that is at once core to the party. His appearance, along with supportive words at a separate news conference by Pelosi were a noteworthy contrast to occasional clashes Ocasio-Cortez has had with party leaders.
Ocasio-Cortez, 30, is a freshman who has made her mark as one of Congress’ most outspoken progressives. Those speaking up included the three other “squad” members — Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
No Republicans spoke on the House floor. But a Yoho spokesman emailed a statement in which the lawmaker said “no one was accosted, bullied, or attacked” during what he called a brief policy discussion.
Yoho, 65, said OcasioCortez
doesn’t have the “right to inflate, talk about my family, or give an account that did not happen for political gain. The fact still remains, I am not going to apologize for something I didn’t say.”
In an encounter Monday witnessed by a reporter from The Hill, Yoho berated Ocasio-Cortez for saying that some of the increased crime during the pandemic could be traced to rising unemployment and poverty.
Ocasio-Cortez described it on the House floor Thursday. She said Yoho put his finger in her face and called her disgusting, crazy and dangerous. She also told the House that in front of reporters, he called her, “and I quote, ‘a f---ing b---h.’ ” That matched The Hill’s version of what Yoho had said. Ocasio-Cortez was not there for that remark.
She said Yoho’s references to his wife and daughters as he explained his actions during remarks Wednesday underscored the problem. “Having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man,” she said.
She added that a decent man apologizes “not to save face, not to win a vote. He apologizes, and genuinely, to repair and acknowledge the harm done, so that we can all move on.”