Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continued her war of words with Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday night, calling the House speaker “outright disrespectful” for criticizing women of color.
The Bronx Democrat was reacting to Pelosi’s repeated attempts at reining in some of the more left-wing members of her caucus and chastising the freshman reps for tweeting too much.
“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,” 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.”
Earlier in the week, Pelosi mocked her and freshman progressive colleagues Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley for their Twitter-based influence.
“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi told the New York Times in a story published Sunday. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
Pressley, who called Pelosi’s comments “demoralizing,” was less interested in engaging with the California Democrat.
“Thank God my mother gave me broad shoulders and a strong back. I can handle it. I’m not worried about me,” Pressley told the paper.
“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 affects them.”