And so, the fight continues and expands.
On Saturday, racially-charged conversations and tensions within the House Democratic Caucus reached new heights.
At the liberal Netroots Nation conference, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said the Democratic party doesn’t need “any more black voices that don’t want to be a black voice.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) were also at the event after a week-long clash with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her allies.
It all started in June when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was one of the first to criticize Democrats who supported an emergency funding bill to send more money to the border, saying the administration could not be trusted to use that money to improve conditions for detained migrants.
Related Article: Ocasio-Cortez Staff Attacks Pelosi, Race Enters Conversation
When Pelosi tried to downplay Ocasio-Cortez and the other congresswomen’s dissenting vote, AOC took a shot at the house speaker, calling her “outright disrespectful” and accusing her of “singling out” the four women of color.
Netroots moderator Aimee Allison brought up the controversy at the event, according to The Washington Post.
“They’re more than four votes. For millions of us, these women of color in Congress represent generations of blood, sweat and tears; of struggle for us to have representation,” Allison said. “They represent the best of American democracy. And yet, if you read the news, they’ve faced attacks all year from the right wing and from Democratic leadership.”
It doesn’t stop there.
On Friday night, the official Twitter account for the House Democratic Caucus highlighted a tweet Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, wrote on June 27 criticizing Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress, for supporting the border bill. But the account did not just retweet Chakrabarti’s comment – whoever was behind the account offered up their own opinion.
“Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color? Her name is Congresswoman Davids, not Sharice. She is a phenomenal new member who flipped a red seat blue. Keep Her Name Out Of Your Mouth,” the @HouseDemocrats account tweeted.
Pelosi has unsuccessfully tried to stop the name-calling and Twitter wars.
