Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed why she was spotted chatting with the Republican congressman who once posted a cartoon of him killing her, on the House floor during the vote for speaker of the House of Representatives.
In between votes for speaker, Ms Ocasio-Cortez spoke with Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona.
In 2021, the House of Representatives censured Mr Gosar and removed him from his committees after he posted a doctored anime video of a character with his head attacking and killing a character with her head on it.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez told reporters that she spoke with Mr Gosar since he said Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy had floated that that Democrats might lower the threshold for a vote for speaker.
“And I said absolutely not,” she said. She said that Democrats would not help Republicans secure the speakership.
“Not that I’ve seen,” she told The Independent.
This came after multiple Republicans opposed party leader Kevin McCarthy’s nomination to become speaker. Mr McCarthy is set to lose the third vote for speaker on Wednesday after many supported either Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona or Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio despite the fact that Mr Jordan supports Mr McCarthy.
Mr Gosar delivered Mr Biggs’s nominating speech despite the fact that Mr McCarthy had previously pledged that he would restore him, as well as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, to committees once Republicans won the majority.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez said that Mr Gosar did not apologise for the cartoon.
“I think that the common thread here is that neither of us wants to see Kevin McCarthy be Speaker of the House,” she said.
Other members of the Squad also said that Democrats would not assist Republicans in the fight to nominate Mr McCarthy or anyone else. Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York told reporters he spoke with three of the Black Republican members to vote for Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who is currently the Democratic leader.
Representative Cori Bush of Missouri told The Independent that Democrats would hold firm and not concede any of their members to vote on a Republican for speaker.
“Because we have two years to look at, so we got to stay together,” she said.
