Black Democrats Blast Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chief of Staff

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday, a day after she accused Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) of attacking “women of color.”

Ocasio-Cortez accused Pelosi of “the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color” on Wednesday, after Pelosi told the New York Times over the weekend that Ocasio-Cortez and her first-term left-wing allies — the “Squad” —  were politically irrelevant.

The week before, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, compared moderate Democrats to segregationists, saying that they were “hell bent” on harming “black and brown” people because they voted for humanitarian spending at the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Thursday, Democrats vented their anger at both Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti. Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), a member of the CBC, ripped Ocasio-Cortez for “using the race card.”

“What a weak argument, because you can’t get your way and because you’re getting pushback you resort to using the race card? Unbelievable. That’s unbelievable to me,” The Hill quoted Lacy Clay as saying. “I could care less. I could really care less. I agree with the Speaker. Four people, four votes out of 240 people, who cares.”

He added: “It shows you how weak their argument is when they have to resort and direct racist accusations toward Speaker Pelosi … it’s very disappointing to me.” He also called Chakrabarti “ignorant” of American history, and said that the “Justice Democrats” — a left-wing group associated with Ocasio-Cortez that backs primary challenges against moderate, white Democrats — were “juvenile.”

Others also attacked Chakrabarti, with at least calling for Ocasio-Cortez to fire her longtime aide:

CBC Chair Karen Bass (D-CA) was somewhat more diplomatic, defending Pelosi and saying she planned to speak privately to Ocasio-Cortez.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.