Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) walked back her suggestion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was targeting her because Pelosi was racist and instead appeared to suggest that Pelosi was targeting her because Pelosi wants her to get “death threats.”
“It’s singling out four individuals, and knowing the media environment that we’re operating in, knowing the amount of death threats that we get, knowing the amount of concentration of attention,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s Manu Raju. “I think it’s just worth asking why.”
WATCH:
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came in response to the escalating fight that she has had with Pelosi in recent months.
Earlier this week Ocasio-Cortez suggested to The Washington Post that Pelosi was targeting her and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) — who all champion extreme left-wing policies —because Pelosi was racist.
“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But the persistent singling out . . . it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful . . . the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”