Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Monday disputed allegations from some critics that she and other progressive freshmen insulted Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) amid the fallout from House passage of a border aid bill backed by President Trump.
“Having respect for ourselves doesn’t mean we lack respect for her. It means we won’t let everyday people be dismissed,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
In an interview with The New York Times, Pelosi said four House Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, made themselves irrelevant by voting against “our bill.”
“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” she said. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
{mosads}Ocasio-Cortez responded by tweeting, “That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country.”
Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) voted against a spending package providing $4.5 billion after Pelosi agreed to take up the bipartisan Senate version of the bill without additional border protections demanded by progressive House lawmakers.
Ocasio-Cortez placed the border controversy at the forefront of her response to Pelosi’s comments to the Times.
“I don’t believe it was a good idea for Dems to blindly trust the Trump admin when so many kids have died in their custody,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
The Hill has reached out to Pelosi’s office for comment.