Rep. Ilhan Omar has come clean: she and her “squad” of fellow freshman congresswomen aren’t interested in sharing power with Democratic Party leadership.
Without mentioning the House speaker by name, Omar (D-MN) seemed to take a jab at Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) this weekend, asserting at a conference for liberal activists that she is “not really in the business” of sharing “power” with Pelosi and others who are already on top, according to the Washington Examiner.
Omar’s comments come amid an ongoing feud between Pelosi and one of Omar’s closest colleagues, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Ocasio-Cortez has accused Pelosi of not being radical enough in her opposition to President Donald Trump and alleged injustices at the U.S.-Mexico border.
A Democrat family feud
“Every single person in Congress has a role,” Omar said at the Netroots Nation conference on Saturday. “Our role is to take our votes and leadership’s role is to wrangle votes.”
Omar’s remarks alluded to Democrat leaders like Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who have bowed to pressure from Republicans in recent weeks on issues like increased border funding — much to the freshmen representatives’ dismay. For her part, Ocasio-Cortez didn’t hold back from blasting Pelosi’s decision to greenlight the Senate’s version of a funding bill instead of pushing harder for a House version of the bill that more strictly outlined how the money was to be allocated.
Under no circumstances should the House vote for a McConnell-only bill w/ no negotiation with Democrats. Hell no.
That’s an abdication of power we should refuse to accept. They will keep hurting kids if we do.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 27, 2019
AOC’s tweet slamming Pelosi came just a week ahead of a New York Times interview in which Pelosi alleged that Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and fellow freshman Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) don’t have a real following. “[They] have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got,” Pelosi said earlier this month.
“That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment,” AOC, who according to USA Today also accused Pelosi of targeting congresswomen of color in her remarks, fired back on Twitter. “And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country.”
Not wanting to miss out on the fun of bashing Nancy Pelosi, Omar also chimed in.
Patetico!
You know they’re just salty about WHO is wielding the power to shift “public sentiment” these days, sis.
Sorry not sorry. https://t.co/GYiiP1YJT1
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 7, 2019
Power struggle
But that wasn’t the last time Omar talked about taking power away from Pelosi. In her Saturday panel discussion, the congresswoman reiterated claims of a power struggle between her faction of progressive leftists and more moderate Dems like Pelosi.
“There’s a constant struggle oftentimes with people who have power about sharing that power,” Omar said this weekend, according to ABC News. “We are not really in the business of asking for the share of that power. We’re in the business of trying to grab that power.”
Omar was flanked at the conference by other members of her “squad,” including Tlaib and Pressley — all part of a young, new faction of Democrats that is apparently unabashed in their pursuit of power.
All the more reason to vote them out of office in the next elections.
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