Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reveals why she was
talking to far-right Republicans
New York Democrat was seen speaking with rightwingers,
one of whom once tweeted an anime-style video depicting him killing her
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was seen talking on the House
floor with the far-right Republicans Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar.
Martin
Pengelly
@MartinPengelly
Wed 4 Jan
2023 07.20 EST
During a
succession of votes for House speaker on Tuesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was
seen talking on the House floor with the far-right Republicans Matt Gaetz and
Paul Gosar, the latter who once tweeted a video depicting him slashing her in
the neck with a sword.
The New York
Democrat, a progressive star, told MSNBC: “In chaos, anything is possible,
especially in this era.”
The chaos
in Congress on Tuesday concerned the California representative Kevin McCarthy’s
attempt to become House speaker, against opposition from the right of his
party.
Gosar, from
Arizona, was censured in November 2021 for tweeting an anime-style video of
violence done to Ocasio-Cortez and Joe Biden.
On Tuesday,
he was among 20 Republicans opposing McCarthy by the third ballot. So was Gaetz
of Florida, a ringleader who nominated Jim Jordan of Ohio, a rightwinger loyal
to McCarthy, to give the rebels someone to vote for.
Ocasio-Cortez,
popularly known as AOC, was seen talking to Gosar and Gaetz. She told the
Intercept her conversation with Gaetz was a “factcheck”.
“McCarthy
was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,”
Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I factchecked and said absolutely not.”
To be
speaker, any candidate must reach a majority of representatives present. At one
point on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez was absent when her name was called. She voted
for Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House, when those absent were
called on again.
Votes for
speaker go on until they are resolved. The last multi-ballot process, in 1923,
lasted three days. In 1855-56, it took months to resolve the issue.
Ocasio-Cortez
said she discussed adjournment strategy with Gosar.
“Some of us
in the House of Representatives are independent in certain ways from our
party,” she told MSNBC. “And … these machinations are happening on the floor.
“And
sometimes the leadership of your party, in this case, the Republican party,
will be making claims in order to try to twist arms and get people in line. And
a lot of times, information and truth is currency.
“So
sometimes to be able to factcheck some of the claims that McCarthy is making,
whether Democrats are going to defect or not, etc, is important in order to
keep him honest and to keep people honest in general.”
On Tuesday,
the House adjourned after three ballots. It was scheduled to reconvene at noon
on Wednesday.
“I was
honestly surprised,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I did not think that Kevin McCarthy
was going to have the votes in the first round, but I didn’t think that it was
going to be as catastrophic for him as it actually was.
“For him to
have several months since the November elections and still not be able to
clinch it, I think, is very much a testament to a lack of leadership.”
McCarthy,
she said, “failed as a coalition-builder, not once, not twice, but three times
… And I’m not quite sure what he could or would do that would change the
calculus between today and tomorrow”.
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