Tuesday, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Reports,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said suggested Democrats could be open to forming a coalition with Republicans to get Republican House Speaker nominee Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to the majority threshold needed.
The New York Democrat raised that possibility while pointing to McCarthy’s shortcomings.
“I believe that a lot of the opposition to him is very personal. I believe his leadership style is incompatible with a lot of Republican members and certainly the Democratic caucus,” she said. “And so I think that is the central question. If not him, then who? You have certain members of the Freedom Caucus who have, of course, nominated other people, but the rest of the Republican Party will not rally, I believe. They will not coalesce under Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan himself doesn’t want it. They will not coalesce under someone like Andy Biggs.”
“And so the question is, is there anyone in their caucus that can build that consensus?” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “If there isn’t, McCarthy’s team may have to come to the Democratic Party. And, if that’s the case, then what would that even look like? It’s rather unprecedented. Could it result in a potential coalition government? Could we get Democratic chairs of committees as a result? We don’t know. But, ultimately, it — what we saw here today is that, in the last two months and now, Kevin McCarthy failed to unite his caucus and failed to even — I think he failed to respect the power of the Freedom Caucus enough as well — they are members of his party — in order to build that coalition together.”
“He failed as a coalition-builder, not once, not twice, but three times,” she added. “And we reconvene tomorrow morning. And I’m not quite sure what he could or would do that would change the calculus between today and tomorrow.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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