Democrats’ racially charged infighting escalates
Washington — An all-out racially charged fight within the House Democratic caucus escalated Saturday when an African American freshman lawmaker said the party doesn’t need “any more black voices that don’t want to be a black voice.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts made those comments during a speech at the liberal Netroots Nation conference where she, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan appeared after a weeklong clash with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her allies.
The feud started last month, when the three freshmen women of color, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, criticized Democrats who supported an emergency funding bill to send more money to the border. The measure passed, but liberal House Democrats said the bill didn’t do enough to protect migrant children held in federal detention centers amid reports of poor conditions. Omar said a vote for it amounted to a vote “to keep kids in cages.”
In response, Pelosi tried to downplay their influence in an interview with The New York Times. “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” she told columnist Maureen Dowd. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people, and that’s how many votes they got.”
Ocasio-Cortez accused the speaker of “singling out” the four women of color, calling it “outright disrespectful.”
Things further escalated Friday night when the official Twitter account for the House Democratic caucus singled out a tweet Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, wrote on June 27 criticizing Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress, for supporting the border bill.
The House Democratic caucus shared that Friday night and offered its own commentary.
“Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color? Her name is Congresswoman Davids, not Sharice. She is a phenomenal new member who flipped a red seat blue. Keep Her Name Out Of Your Mouth,” the @HouseDemocrats account tweeted.