President Donald Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway called conflict between Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi a ‘major meow moment’ and a ‘catfight’ on Tuesday, prompting Ocasio-Cortez to fire back that the words are ‘sexist.’
Conway made the comment while discussing Democratic votes on a humanitarian aid package related to the crisis at America’s Southern border on Fox & Friends.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to Conway’s comment by calling out the sexist nature of the term ‘catfight’ and ridiculing Republicans for not having ‘elected enough women’ to see that sometimes ‘two adult women happen to disagree with each other.’
The rift Conway was referring to occurred after Ocasio-Cortez and three fellow newly-elected representatives were the only Democrats to vote against an aid package, which Pelosi critiqued as indicating they had no ‘following’ beyond social media.
Trump adviser kellyanne Conway called a disagreement between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a ‘huge catfight’ on Fox & Friends on Tuesday.
Conway was describing Pelosi’s (CA) reaction to representatives Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ayanna Pressley (MA) voting against a $4.6 billion aid package with most of the money earmarked to help improve conditions at border facilities.
‘Major meow moment, a brushing back in a huge catfight. Really ridiculing them,’ Conway said.
After Conway uttered the offensive phrase, she doubled down by tweeting it and tagging all five women she was referring to.
After Conway uttered the offensive phrase, she doubled down by tweeting it and tagging all five women she was referring to, including Pelosi (CA), Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ayanna Pressley (MA)
Ocasio-Cortez didn’t take kindly to Conway highlighting the differences of opinion in such a way, calling it ‘sexist’ and a product of Republicans not having ‘elected enough women’ to see that sometimes ‘two adult women happen to disagree with each other’
‘Major Meow [cat emoji] Mashup with @SpeakerPelosi brushing back anti-humanitarian border aid fresh-women @AOC @IlhanMN @AyannaPressley @RashidaTlaib,’ Conway wrote, including a link to a Politico story about her use of the terms.
Ocasio-Cortez didn’t take kindly to Conway highlighting the differences of opinion in such a way.
‘”Catfight” is the sexist term Republicans use when two adult women happen to disagree with each other. The reason they find it so novel & exciting is bc the GOP haven’t elected enough women themselves to see that it can, in fact, be a normal occurrence in a functioning democracy,’ Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, including a link as well to a story about Conway’s choice of words.
The House Speaker told The New York Times that the four freshmen representatives who voted against the $4.6 billion border bill may have had their ‘public “whatever”‘ and ‘Twitter world’ but could’t get votes on their side for the spending bill
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fired back at Nancy Pelosi, claiming that public followings, like those on Twitter, are the way to ‘achieve meaningful change’
Ocasio-Cortez also responded saying that the ‘public “whatever'”‘ is actually ‘public sentiment’
Pelosi’s initial comments came out during an interview with The New York Times which was published on Saturday, where Pelosi criticized Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley for voting against the $4.6 billion border bill –– where $3 billion of that would provide funding for humanitarian aid at the U.S.-Mexican border.
The version of the bill that ended up passing through the House was the Republican-version, after the Democrat version was rejected in the Senate.
Although the House Speaker was initially opposed to the Republican bill, she came around to supporting it after several reports of horrific living conditions at migrant holding facilities.
‘All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,’ Pelosi told the Times. ‘But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.’
Ocasio-Cortez also criticized some senior members’ way of reaching the public, including spending millions on TV advertisements
Four freshmen representatives Ocasio-Cortez (upper left), Ilhan Omar (upper right), Ayanna Pressley (lower left) and Rashida Tliab (lower right) all voted against the bill
Ocasio-Cortez pushed back, claiming that the ‘public ‘whatever’ is a manifestation of public support for a movement or cause.
‘That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment,’ Ocasio-Cortez tweeted hours after Pelosi’s comments were published. ‘And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country.’
The progressive Democrat from New York said Democrats who voted along with Republicans on the spending plan were making a huge mistake in trusting President Trump to address issues at the border.
‘I don’t believe it was a good idea for Dems to blindly trust the Trump admin when so many kids have died in their custody. It’s a huge mistake,’ she wrote in a third Twitter thread Saturday. ‘This admin also refuses to hand over docs to Congress on the whereabouts of families. People’s lives are getting bargained, & for what?’
Later, Ocasio-Cortez added that the way to ‘achieve meaningful change’ is reaching out to public followings.
‘I find it strange when members act as though social media isn’t important,’ Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
‘They set millions of [dollars] on [fire] to run TV ads so people can see their message,’ Ocasio-Cortez wrote in describing how out of touch some senior members are in their alternative, expensive forms of communicating to the masses.
‘I haven’t dialed for dollars *once* this year, & have more time to do my actual job. Yet we’d rather campaign like it’s 2008.’
Tlaib, who was also elected in the 2018 midterm elections, also addressed her decision to vote against the bill, claiming that she was told by immigration enforcement agents that throwing more money at the issue isn’t going to fix it.
‘Three agents took me aside, away from my colleagues and said, ‘more money is not going to fix this,’ she told ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning.
She continued that it was ‘disappointing’ that Pelosi would try to make her and her three colleagues votes seem less important.
‘All of us have these experiences that I think have been missing in the halls of Congress. Honor that, respect that, put us at the table. Let’s come up with a solution together,’ Tlaib said. ‘It is very disappointing that the Speaker would ever try to diminish our voices in so many ways.’