New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s life allegedly "completely transformed" for the better after Nancy Pelosi stepped down as Speaker of the House according to an upcoming book.
The Guardian described this claim in excerpts from The Intercept reporter Ryan Grim’s book "The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution," which is set to be released on Tuesday. In the excerpts, Grim cites text messages from Ocasio-Cortez where she expressed a sense of relief following the change in Democratic House leadership.
"I thought things would get worse," Ocasio-Cortez apparently wrote. "I thought a lot of my misery was due to leadership more broadly having a thing against me. But … my life has completely transformed. It's crazy. And it's that that made me realise it was kind of just [Pelosi] the whole time."
"Senior members talk to me, [committee] chairs are nice to me, people want to work together," another text reportedly read. "I'm shocked. I couldn't even get floor time before."
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Pelosi announced in 2022 that she would not be seeking re-election as House Speaker for the next congressional term. At the time, Ocasio-Cortez spoke favorably about Pelosi.
"I hadn’t even graduated public school when she ascended to the speakership," Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent. "So, in a way, she normalised that kind of leadership for a generation that grew up already having that seat, and of course, it was an inspiration for those who have lived through much longer struggles."
Behind the scenes, however, Grim wrote that there was constant tension between the two even from their first meeting following Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise victory in 2018. The women spoke with each other over lunch when Pelosi took issue with Ocasio-Cortez’s "Abolish ICE" slogan.
"Getting Pelosi’s unfiltered thoughts was both eye-opening and disturbing," Grim wrote. "Ocasio-Cortez, who had made the slogan ‘Abolish Ice’ [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] central to her challenge to Crowley, was particularly perplexed to hear Pelosi say that the phrase had been injected into American political discourse by the Russians and that Democrats needed to quash it."
Following the comment, Grim wrote that Ocasio-Cortez’ staff "slow-walked things long enough" to avoid Pelosi during New York visits and "ducked efforts to schedule calls."
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Another text from Ocasio-Cortez reportedly read, "The amount of times she told me that stupid 'I have protest signs older than you in my basement' sh*t. Like yeah but mine don't collect dust."
Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez’s offices have yet to respond for comment.
Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez have been known to tussle with each other over the priorities of progressive and moderate congressional Democrats. In 2019, their feud escalated after Congress successfully passed a border funding bill that AOC and her fellow "Squad" members opposed. Ocasio-Cortez accused Pelosi of the "persistent singling out" of "newly elected women of color."
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Pelosi previously criticized the "Squad" at the time saying, "all these people 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."
