Ocasio-Cortez Hits Back at Pelosi After She Knocked Progressives for Voting Against Spending Package

By Aris Folley, The Hill

07 July 19

ep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hit back at Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over Twitter on Saturday night after Pelosi knocked the freshman lawmaker for not voting with Democrats on a spending package passed by the House last week.

Earlier on Saturday, Pelosi took aim at progressive congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) after the four voted against the House's version of a $4.5 billion spending package recently passed by Congress that sought to remedy issues at the southern border.

In an interview with the The New York Times, Pelosi said she believed the four lawmakers made themselves irrelevant by voting against what she referred to as “our bill," which passed in in a vote of 230-195, mostly along party lines, but with opposition from Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley. The House later passed a Senate border funding bill, sending that version to President Trump for his signature.

“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” she added. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”

In response, Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter, “That public 'whatever' is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country.”

In a second tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said, "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 added. "This admin also refuses to hand over docs to Congress on the whereabouts of families. People’s lives are getting bargained, & for what?”