Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the firebrand representative from New York, hit back at House leadership, claiming 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 after Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, dismissed the Twitter-followings of some freshmen representatives.
‘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 reaching out to the public.
‘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,’ she continued.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fired back at Nancy Pelosi, claiming that public followings, like those on Twitter, are the way to ‘achieve meaningful change’
The House Speaker told The New York Times that the four freshmen representatives who voted against the $4.6 billion border bill are just have their ‘public ‘whatever” and ‘Twitter world’ and said that was reflected in the votes for the spending bill
Ocasio-Cortez responded that the ‘public ‘whatever” is actually ‘public sentiment’ and was the way to shift how things are done
During an interview with The New York Times, which was published Saturday, Pelosi criticized Ocasio-Cortez, and her freshmen colleagues, 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 Reoublican-version, after the Democrat version was rejected in the Senate.
Pelosi’s comments about the freshmen representatives came during a New York Times interview, published on Saturday, after Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Rliab and Ayanna Pressley all voted against the bill.
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 (lower 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?’
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 ‘disappoint’ 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.’