Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who dismissed the House’s left wing as “four people” who “didn’t have any following.”
During an interview published Saturday, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd asked the California congresswoman about left-wing opposition to a recently passed $4.5 billion emergency border funding bill.
“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world, but they didn’t have any following,” Pelosi told Dowd. “They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
Pelosi was speaking of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, who all voted against the bill. (RELATED: ‘Schumer Destroyed All Our Leverage’: WaPo Report Reveals Infighting Between House And Senate Democrats On Border Bill)
“If the left doesn’t think I’m left enough, so be it,” said Pelosi. “As I say to these people, come to my basement. I have these signs about single-payer from 30 years ago. I understand what they’re saying. But we have a responsibility to get something done, which is different from advocacy. We have to have a solution, not just a Twitter fight.”
Responding Saturday night on Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez equated Pelosi’s “public whatever” to “public sentiment.”
“And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country,” she wrote.
That public “whatever” is called public sentiment.
And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country. https://t.co/u6JtgwwRsk
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 7, 2019