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Showing Original Post only (View all)'Outright disrespectful': Four House women struggle as Pelosi isolates them [View all]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admonished Democrats for personally attacking one another, warning in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that the partys fracturing was jeopardizing its majority.
Without naming names, her target was clear: the four liberal freshman known as the Squad.
You got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just okay, Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Democrats.
But the Squad Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) is convinced it is Pelosi who is being the bully.
The four are struggling with the speakers moves to isolate them in recent weeks, according to interviews with the lawmakers, congressional aides and allies. Pelosi has made at least half-dozen remarks dismissing the group or their far-left proposals on the environment and health care. More recently she scorned their lonely opposition to the partys emergency border bill last month.
And she defended those comments Wednesday, saying, I have no regrets about anything. Regrets is not what I do, doubling down on her claim that the group has little power in the House.
When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arms distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood, Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post. 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.
The four women are trying to figure out how to respond, texting one another and weighing whether to confront Pelosi to ask her to stop. But for now, they are focused on their congressional duties, even as they defend their votes in the House that have drawn Pelosis ire.
Thank God my mother gave me broad shoulders and a strong back. I can handle it. Im not worried about me, said Pressley, who called Pelosis comments demoralizing. I am worried about the signal that it sends to people I speak to and for, who sent me here with a mandate, and how it affect them.
More at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/outright-disrespectful-four-house-women-struggle-as-pelosi-isolates-them/2019/07/10/a33c63a8-a33f-11e9-b7b4-95e30869bd15_story.html