There isn’t much to say here beyond reciting the facts, yet the story must be blogged because it’s so … so 2020. On the one hand, there’s the lecturing young wokester pushing weak-even-for-her theories about how the uptick in murders and grand theft in NYC might be due to hungry people needing bread. On the other hand, there’s the snarling older righty who seems to find virtue in how nasty he’s willing to be in confronting the left. What happens when these two crazy kids come face to face?
Nothing good. Nothing good.
No matter how bad this year makes you feel, and how much it encourages you to despair for America’s future, rest assured that it will get worse. Day by miserable day.
This is terrible form by Ted Yoho if it’s true, needless to say. Apparently he and AOC passed each other yesterday on the Capitol steps — within earshot of a reporter from The Hill.
In a brief but heated exchange, which was overheard by a reporter, Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez she was “disgusting” for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment are driving a spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.
“You are out of your freaking mind,” Yoho told her.
Ocasio-Cortez shot back, telling Yoho he was being “rude.”
The two then parted ways. Ocasio-Cortez headed into the building, while Yoho, joined by Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), began descending toward the House office buildings. A few steps down, Yoho offered a parting thought to no one in particular.
“F***ing b*tch,” he said.
“No comment,” said Yoho when asked about it later, although his spokesman told CNN today that he never said what he’s alleged to have said. AOC herself told Yahoo News that she heard him muttering as she walked away but couldn’t make out what he said. She also accused fellow Republican Roger Williams, who was with Yoho at the time, of joining in on the initial confrontation.
I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday.
Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door.
But hey, “b*tches” get stuff done. 🤷🏽♀️ https://t.co/WlG3xccwR7
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 21, 2020
What’s wild to me @RogerWilliamsTX is why would you blatantly lie to a reporter who saw this exchange?
You were yelling at me too, about “throwing urine.”
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 21, 2020
“That kind of confrontation hasn’t ever happened to me — ever,” she told The Hill. “I’ve never had that kind of abrupt, disgusting kind of disrespect levied at me.” She had some support today on Twitter from the right, in some cases fairly predictable…
.@AOC and I disagree on literally almost everything – but this mysogynistic trend where every woman you disagree with is a “bitch” is archaic, reductive and completely despicable. If you’re not emotionally mature enough to handle working with strong women, then resign Ted Yoho. https://t.co/udznGm1W8c
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 21, 2020
…and in other cases less so:
I can confirm that AOC gets along w many of her Republican colleagues on a range of things that don’t have anything to do w legislation or politics.
She is not a bitch.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) July 21, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez also told Yahoo News that she spoke to Yoho afterward about how he behaved — and got another earful: “I actually confronted him later that day about what he did and he doubled down, yelling at me again for a second time later in the afternoon.” Congrats to Ted Yoho on becoming the new populist frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2024, I guess.
House Dems want consequences, not just to show the left that they’re willing to back up a progressive superstar when a righty gets in her face but to call women voters’ attention to Yoho’s behavior. Women are poised to deliver a landslide victory to Biden this fall if you believe the latest polling. Anything Democrats can do to try to further alienate them from the GOP is useful to them:
2) Hoyer says says Yoho was acting like "a bully.…It was the antithesis to John Lewis. It needs to be sanctioned"
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 21, 2020
Are they going to sanction him for general “rudeness” or are they going to sanction him for the profane insult specifically? Given that Yoho’s office denies that he said it, presumably they’ll have to haul in the reporter who overheard it and get him/her to vouch for it before they sanction him. It sure doesn’t sound like he’s going to apologize. He has only a few months left as a congressman, as he’s retiring after this term. It’s not like he needs to rebuild cordial relations with anyone.
Here’s Dem Rep. Karen Bass vowing that there’ll be a “response” of some sort.
Rep. Karen Bass called a report of offensive language used by Rep. Ted Yoho against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a "verbal assault." "He cannot get away with behavior like that," Bass told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday, adding that there would "be a response." pic.twitter.com/ncIeWeCb8D
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 21, 2020
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