Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) came to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s defense on Friday, amidst rising tensions between Pelosi and four progressive Democratic congresswomen known as “the Squad.”
In a separate interview with the Washington Post, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is part of “the Squad,” blasted Pelosi for being “just outright disrespectful” due to her “explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”
The members of the Squad include Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who is Black, Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is a Somali immigrant, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian American.
But according to Harris, who is Black – the daughter of a Jamaican man and an Indian mother – that has not been her experience with Pelosi.
“That’s not my experience with Nancy Pelosi,” Harris said in an interview with The Breakfast Club. “And I’ve known her and worked with her for years. I’ve known her to be very respectful of women of color and very supportive of them. So I have a different experience.”
Pelosi drew ire after a New York Times piece was published last Saturday, criticizing “the Squad” for voting against emergency border aid funding.
“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi told the New York Times. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
The tensions in the House drew the attention of Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, who mocked the incident as a “major meow mashup.”
That of course, drew the attention of Pressley, who was not having any part of Conway’s shenanigans, tweeting out, “oh hi Distraction Becky. Remember that time your boss tore babies from their mothers’ arms and threw them in cages? Yeah take a seat and keep my name out of your lying mouth.”
