GOP Rep. Palmer on Pelosi-AOC Fight: ‘It’s Something That I Don’t Think We’ve Ever Seen, at Least in Modern Times’

As the very public feud underway between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) continues to escalate, many Republicans are taking notice, and some are even suggesting it could play into their favor in the 2020 election cycle.

During an interview on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), the chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, laid out how the rise of Ocasio-Cortez is problematic for Pelosi as a well-funded Ocasio-Cortez is recruiting candidates to primary Pelosi loyalists and sabotaging Pelosi-led legislative efforts.

“There are serious divisions, and it’s more than just between Pelosi and AOC,” Palmer said on “The Jeff Poor Show” earlier this week. “Ocasio-Cortez has enormous amounts of money behind her. They’re out recruiting candidates to primary fellow Democrats in the House. That’s created a huge problem for Pelosi. But there’s a third group of people, who I think are — and it doesn’t mean a whole lot to call a Democrat a moderate anymore — but they are more sensible moderate members. And there are probably 20 or 30 of them that are kind of caught in this crossfire. Those are the ones that forced Pelosi to back off of that really bad border funding bill right before the Fourth of July and have a vote on the bill that the Senate passed — the bill that we tried to bring up 18 times. Twenty of them basically blew up Pelosi’s bill. They are kind of caught in the middle. And I think this is really going to fracture the party because you can’t have someone, a freshman in particular, that has the resources to go out and go after more senior members of her own party without really sabotaging the whole agenda.”

The Alabama Republican indicated that such activity was unprecedented and identified Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Eliot Engel (D-NY) as two of Ocasio-Cortez’s targets.

“I think Nadler is already on AOC’s target list, along with a number of other Democrats,” he added. “Eliot Engel is another New York Democrat that is on that list. It’s something that I don’t think we’ve ever seen, at least in modern times, being played out in front of us with the divisions that exist within their party.”

Palmer also said that the leftward push by those Democrats offered voters a “clear choice,” which will come into play in the 2020 general election.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor