A black Democratic lawmaker has a bone to pick with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “singling out of newly elected women of color.”
Rep. Lacy Clay of Missouri told Fox News that the Democratic representative from New York, in addition to other liberal Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts “have to learn to be effective legislators.”
The comments come amid a week of feuding between Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez. He pointed to comments she made about Pelosi that the four women were being picked on unfairly by the speaker.
“It was such a weak argument to say she was being picked on and that four women of color were being picked on by the speaker,” the 62-year-old Clay said.
“It tells you the level of ignorance to American history on their part as to what we are as the Democratic Caucus,” he said. “It is so inappropriate. So uncalled for. It does not do anything to help with unity. It was unfair to Speaker Pelosi.”
Clay said that Ocasio-Cortez’s comment showed that the freshman congresswomen have much to learn about working in Congress with other lawmakers.
“It’s going to take a process of maturing for those freshman members. They will have to learn to be effective legislators,” he said.
“It shows their lack of sensitivity to racism. To fall back on that (trope) is a weak argument. It has no place in a civil discussion,” Clay, who is a 10th-term congressman, added.
“Their ignorance is beyond belief,” Clay reportedly said Thursday in the Speaker’s Lobby.
Adding further fuel to the fire, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, recently said moderate Democrats “seem hell bent to do to black and brown peopled today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s,” prompting ire.
