House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) followed up a meeting with freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Friday morning by saying the two do “not have that many differences.”
The pair met Friday morning after weeks of tensions and rumored infighting. Ocasio-Cortez downplayed the meeting Thursday night, claiming that they were “just trying to make sure” they had an open line of communication.
The meeting began around 8:30 a.m. Eastern and ended approximately 30 minutes later. Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately speak to reporters, but Pelosi briefly told reporters that she does not believe she and Ocasio-Cortez have “that many differences.”
“I don’t think we have that many differences,” Pelosi said, according to Politico.
She appeared to downplay the magnitude of the bubbling tensions and said they did not speak about Ocasio-Cortez subtly accusing Pelosi of racism two weeks ago. The freshman lawmaker eventually backtracked and said Pelosi is “absolutely not” a racist.
“I have meetings with members all the time. … We covered a range of issues in our conversation particular to the congresswoman’s committees,” Pelosi added:
Today, Congresswoman @RepAOC and I sat down to discuss working together to meet the needs of our districts and our country, fairness in our economy and diversity in our country. pic.twitter.com/eVp1LS0Gpw
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 26, 2019
The bitter feud between the two reached a boiling point after Pelosi approved a $4.6 billion Senate-passed version of a humanitarian border funding bill, with the “Squad’s” more progressive version failing to catch steam.
As Breitbart News reported:
Relations took a turn for the worse after Pelosi conceded, accepting a bipartisan emergency funding package and ditching the “Squad’s” version, which was packed with immigration enforcement restrictions. Pelosi felt as though the Squad did its party a disservice by voting against what she described to the New York Times as “our bill,” which she believes stood the best chance of making it in the long haul.
The far-left flank was not satisfied with Pelosi’s concession, but Pelosi sarcastically dismissed their concerns, directly hitting the Squad in a July 6 interview with the New York Times.
“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
Ocasio-Cortez addressed Pelosi’s dismissive remark on Twitter:
“A glass of water could’ve [beat a 20-yr incumbt]”
“The Green Dream or whatever”
“Their public whatever”Those aren’t quotes from me; they‘re from the Speaker. Having respect for ourselves doesn’t mean we lack respect for her.
It means we won’t let everyday people be dismissed. https://t.co/VMRkcd8xlL
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 8, 2019
Tensions continued to rise, as Pelosi berated ultra-progressive members of the caucus for publicly airing their party’s dirty laundry during a closed-door caucus meeting this month.
“So, again, you got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it,” Pelosi reportedly told her Democrat colleagues. “But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just ok.”
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