Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims that Nancy Pelosi is deliberately inciting death threats

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has claimed Nancy Pelosi is trying to incite death threats towards her, the latest in a long running tit-for-tat dispute between the pair.  

Democrat representative Ocasio-Cortez hit out at House Speaker following Pelosi’s scolding of her and her ‘squad’ during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers in the Capitol. 

But AOC told reporters afterwards that that Pelosi’s comments were incendiary and were ‘singing out individuals’ despite knowing ‘the media environment that we’re operating in’ as well as being aware of the ‘amount of death threats’ she receives.   

Pelosi defended her scolding of Ocasio-Cortez and said she was doing her job as leader of the party by dressing down one of New York Democrat’s staff for a tweet that essentially referred to some Democratic lawmakers as segregationists.  

‘They took offense because I addressed, at the request of my members, an offensive tweet that came out of one of the member’s offices that referenced our Blue Dogs and our New Dems essentially as segregationists. 

‘Our members took offense at that. I addressed that. How they’re interpreting and carrying it to another place is up to them. But I’m not going to be discussing it any further,’ she told reporters at her weekly news conference.

And the speaker snapped back at journalists who tried to question her further on the feud.

‘Maybe you didn’t hear what I said. I said what I’m going to say on the subject. What I said in the caucus yesterday had an overwhelming responses from my members, because they know what the facts are and what we’re responding to,’ she said when asked again.

‘We expect the value of every member of our caucus. The diversity of it is a wonderful thing. Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power. 

But AOC told reporters afterwards that that Pelosi’s comments were incendiary and were ‘singing out individuals’ despite knowing ‘the media environment that we’re operating in’ as well as being aware of the ‘amount of death threats’ she receives

AOC told reporters afterwards that that Pelosi’s comments were incendiary and were ‘singing out individuals’ despite knowing ‘the media environment that we’re operating in’ as well as being aware of the ‘amount of death threats’ she receives

Pelosi defended her scolding of Ocasio-Cortez and said she was doing her job as leader of the party

‘And we have a big fight and we’re in the arena and that’s all I’m going to say on the subject. If you want to waste your question, you can waste your question,’ she added.

Saikat Chakrabarti, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, attacked Pelosi and other Democrats in a tweet over the weekend, criticizing the Blue Dog Democrats and New Democrats – as the more moderate members of the party are known.

Chakrabarti referred to them as ‘New Southern Democrats,’ which is seen as a code word for segregationists.

‘Instead of ‘fiscally conservative but socially liberal,’ let’s call the New Democrats and Blue Dog Caucus the ‘New Southern Democrats.’ They certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did the 40s,’ he wrote on Saturday.

He later deleted the post.

‘I deleted the tweet since, yeah, I’m mad. But I do think if we don’t have progress on racial justice it will be because of the new Dems and blue dogs. Just like in 1940,’ he later wrote.

After her dressing down of social media manners in Wednesday’s meeting, Pelosi said her members were upset by comments from the unelected staffer.

‘Our caucus is very upset about some of the comments that have come from the staff,’ Pelosi told reporters Wednesday after the gathering.

Compounding the reports of the feud, were comments Ocasio-Cortez made to The Washington Post, where she accused Pelosi of repeatedly singling out ‘newly elected women of color’ and called the speaker ‘outright disrespectful.’