Donald Trump: Ocasio-Cortez Should Treat Pelosi with Respect — ‘She Is Not a Racist’

President Trump lambasted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Friday morning as the far-left Democrat and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) continue to trade public barbs over last month’s border funding vote.

“I think Cortez is being very disrespectful to somebody who’s been there a long time,” the president told reporters at the White House ahead of a scheduled visit to Wisconsin. “I deal with Nancy Pelosi a lot and we go back and forth and it’s fine, but I think that a group of people is being very disrespectful to her,” the president continued. “And you know what, I don’t think that Nancy can let that go on.”

The freshman congresswoman “should treat Nancy Pelosi with respect,” he concluded.

In a Wednesday interview with the Washington Post, Ocasio-Cortez hit back at Pelosi for declaring the political irrelevance of “The Squad” — made up of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and herself — for voting against the border funding bill supported by Democrat Party leadership.

“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” the 29-year-old told the newspaper. “But the persistent singling out… it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful… the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”
When pressed Thursday on whether she was calling Pelosi a racist, the lawmaker backpedaled, saying, “absolutely not.”

“She is not a racist,” President Trump said of Pelosi on Friday. “For them to call her a racist is a disgrace.”

Meanwhile, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have expressed frustration with Ocasio-Cortez over her remarks about the speaker, with one lawmaker accusing her of “using the race card.”

“What a weak argument, because you can’t get your way and because you’re getting pushback you resort to using the race card? Unbelievable. That’s unbelievable to me,” Rep. Lacy Clay told reporters, according to The Hill. “I could care less. I could really care less. I agree with the Speaker. Four people, four votes out of 240 people, who cares.”

“It shows you how weak their argument is when they have to resort and direct racist accusations toward Speaker Pelosi… it’s very disappointing to me,” he added.