Trouble in paradise? The rumors of infighting between House Democrats grows louder after progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said it’s time for new leadersjip within the party. The freshman lawmaker joined Jeremy Scahill on his left-wing podcast to discuss talks surroundng another round of Coronavirus relief for Americans but the conversation shifted to her thoughts on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer. During the interview Rep. Ocasio-Cortez refrenced plans to replace Pelosi and Schumer with more progressive Democrats.
The Daily Wire reports:
“I do think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. Ocasio-Cortez has had a strained relationship with the House speaker since the New York Democrat won election in 2018. Ocasio-Cortez added that the issue hindering Democrats from replacing Pelosi is that nobody else is prepared to hold the position.
“I think one of the things that I have struggled with – I think that a lot of people struggle with – is the internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there is very little option for succession,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I think it’s easy for one to say, ‘Oh, well, you know, why don’t you run?’ but the House is extraordinarily complex and I’m not ready. It can’t be me. I know that I couldn’t do that job, and so even conservative members of the party who think Nancy Pelosi is far too liberal for them don’t necessarily have any viable alternatives.”
“Whenever there is a challenge, it kind of collapses, and that, I think, is the result of just many years of power being concentrated in leadership with lack of real grooming of next generation of leader,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Scahill asked again if Rep. Oscasio-Cortez agrres that Pelosi and and Schumer should go.
“I think so,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “The hesitancy that I have is that I want to make sure that if we’re pointing people in a direction, that we have a plan. And my concern — and this I acknowledge as a failing, as something that we need to sort out — is that there isn’t a plan. How do we fill that vacuum? Because if you create that vacuum, there are so many nefarious forces at play to fill that vacuum with something even worse.”
The freshman lawmaker has been the subject of scrutiny from House Democrats who believe far left progressives are to blame for Democrats failure to flip more House seats during the election.
