Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Monday that outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly owes Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) an apology for critical comments about her before he leaves his job.
“John Kelly was straight up exposed for lying about @RepWilson in comments aimed at discrediting her,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “He absolutely owes her an apology, and his refusal to do so isn’t a sign of strength — it’s cowardice.”
The incoming lawmaker was echoing Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who said she hoped Kelly would offer Wilson a “long overdue” apology.
{mosads}Wilson and Kelly feuded last year after the lawmaker said she overheard a conversation between President Trump and the widow of a U.S. soldier killed during a mission in Niger.
Wilson said Trump told the widow during the call that her late husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, “knew what he was getting into.”
Trump attacked Wilson as “wacky” and denied making the remarks, while Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, chastised Wilson for listening in on the conversation.
“I would have thought that was sacred,” he said.
Kelly also called Wilson an “empty barrel” and suggested she inappropriately took credit for securing millions of dollars in funding for the FBI field office in Miami.
Video later showed that Wilson had not boasted about securing the funding.
She later demanded an apology from Kelly, but he stood by his comments.
Trump announced over the weekend that Kelly would leave as chief of staff by the end of the year. The two had a fraught relationship marked by reports of Kelly’s imminent ouster.
Kelly has served in the Trump administration from the start, first as secretary of Homeland Security and then as Trump’s second chief of staff.