Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has revealed why she was seen speaking with the Republican congressman, who once published a cartoon of him killing him, on the House floor as he was voting for speaker.
Between votes for speaker, Ocasio-Cortez spoke with Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar.
In 2021, the House of Representatives slammed Mr. Gosar and removed him from its committees after he posted a fake anime video of a nodded character attacking and killing a character with a nod.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez told reporters she had spoken with Mr Gosar since Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said Democrats could lower the threshold for voting for the speaker.
“And I said absolutely not,” she said. She said the Democrats would not help the Republicans get the speakership.
She said, “I didn’t see that.” The Independent.
This came after many Republicans opposed the nomination of party leader Kevin McCarthy for the post of speaker. McCarthy is expected to lose the third speaker vote Wednesday after many supported either Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs or Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, though Mr. Jordan supports McCarthy.
Mr. Gosar delivered Mr. Biggs’ nomination speech despite the fact that Mr. McCarthy previously vowed that he would return him and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the committees once Republicans won a majority.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said Gosar did not apologize for the cartoon.
“I think the common denominator here is that none of us want Kevin McCarthy to be Speaker of the House,” she said.
Other members of the band have also said that the Democrats will not help the Republicans campaign for Mr. McCarthy or anyone else’s nomination. Rep. Jamal Bowman of New York told reporters he spoke to three black Republicans to vote for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is currently the Democratic leader.
Rep. Cory Bush of Missouri said independenceThe Democrats will persevere and not allow any of their members to vote for a Republican for President.
“Because we have two years to think things over, we had to stick together,” she said.