Rep. William Lacy Clay joined the growing criticism of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her “inappropriate” attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Missouri Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus called out Ocasio-Cortez and her “squad” of freshman Democrats for the “ignorance” shown in accusing Pelosi of being racially insensitive.
“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,” Clay said on Fox News Thursday.
“It tells you the level of ignorance to American history on their part as to what we are as the Democratic Caucus,” he added. “It is so inappropriate. So uncalled for. It does not do anything to help with unity. It was unfair to Speaker Pelosi.”
Ocasio-Cortez ignited a firestorm in the escalating discord with House Democrats, complaining to the Washington Post of Pelosi’s “persistent singling out” of herself and fellow congresswomen, Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
The New York freshman lawmaker criticized Pelosi for the”explicit singling out of newly-elected women of color.”
AOC pulls race card on Pelosi, claims Speaker is targeting freshman ‘women of color’ as Dem war escalates https://t.co/HVt9t5uTYk pic.twitter.com/9934Y7Wken
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) July 11, 2019
“It’s going to take a process of maturing for those freshman members. They will have to learn to be effective legislators,” Clay told Fox News. “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.”
He also warned that the young, progressive lawmakers could negatively affect Democrats in the upcoming elections.
“It shows they have no sensibility to different members from our caucus. Some come from red districts and those are the ones who gave us the majority. We need them all,” he said.
Pelosi was ready to move on from the week’s contentious back-and-forth, telling reporters Thursday that, “I addressed that. How they’re interpreting that and carrying it to another place is up to them.”
Angry Pelosi snaps at reporters when pressed on AOC’s racism allegations, says fight is over. But, it’s not https://t.co/ebjRWXkSUH
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) July 11, 2019
The Democratic leader had warned House Democrats not to attack each other on Twitter after Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, posted a since-deleted tweet slamming “moderate” Democrats.
Clay had blasted Ocasio-Cortez for “using the race card” in her attack on Pelosi.
“What a weak argument, because you can’t get your way and because you’re getting pushback you resort to using the race card? Unbelievable. That’s unbelievable to me,” he said, according to The Hill. “I could care less. I could really care less. I agree with the Speaker. Four people, four votes out of 240 people, who cares.”
“It shows you how weak their argument is when they have to resort and direct racist accusations toward Speaker Pelosi … it’s very disappointing to me,” he added.
The Missouri Democrat also blasted Chakrabarti and the progressive Democrats as “juvenile” and “ignorant.”
“It shows you how ignorant and little history [Chakrabarti] knows, how ignorant he is to American history. How dare he,” Clay said.
“They’re missing the fact that we have a very thin margin of a majority that we’re operating under and apparently it doesn’t matter to Justice Democrats, they just want to get skins. They want to score points for whatever reason,” he added, according to The Hill.
“But I find it juvenile, their tactics, I find their ignorance to be beyond belief about American history and about who are really segregationists,” Clay said. “And so how dare they try to play the race card at this point, it shows you the weakness of their arguments.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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