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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib listen as Michael Cohen, former attorney for President Donald Trump, testifies before the House Oversight Committee.
- Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts laid into White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Twitter after Conway made remarks about her and her progressive colleagues.
- "Major Meow Mashup with [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] brushing back anti-humanitarian border aid fresh-women [Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib]," Conway said on Twitter.
- Pressley responded with a negative nickname for Conway and made note of the Trump administration's previous policy of separating undocumented migrants' children from their parents
- "[Conway], oh hi Distraction Becky," Pressley tweeted. "Remember that time your boss tore babies from their mothers' arms and threw them in cages? Yeah take a seat and keep my name out of your lying mouth."
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Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts laid into White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Twitter after Conway made remarks about an opinion column scrutinizing several high-profile, progressive lawmakers.
Conway shared a New York Times opinion column written by Maureen Dowd on Tuesday with captions that tagged the Twitter accounts of several lawmakers who were newly elected to Congress.
"Major Meow Mashup with [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] brushing back anti-humanitarian border aid fresh-women [Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib]," Conway said on Twitter.
Pressley responded with a negative nickname for Conway and made note of the Trump administration's previous policy of separating undocumented migrants' children from their parents.
"[Conway], oh hi Distraction Becky," Pressley responded. "Remember that time your boss tore babies from their mothers' arms and threw them in cages? Yeah take a seat and keep my name out of your lying mouth."
Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib are all members of the House Progressive Caucus and have risen to prominence since assuming office. The column referred to the lawmakers as "the Squad" and featured an interview with Pelosi, who noted their opposition against a $4.6 billion emergency border bill that was voted in favor by most Democrats.
"All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world," Pelosi said in the column, apparently referring to their significant following on social media channels. "But they didn't have any following. They're four people and that's how many votes they got."
The progressive lawmakers viewed Pelosi's comments as being dismissive, and other Democrats rallied to their
"Do not dismiss [Ocasio-Cortez ] for casting lonely votes," Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California tweeted, adding that he was "glad the body has voices of moral dissent."
"History proves that dissent provokes reflection & change," Khanna tweeted.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Conway described the dissent as "a major meow moment'" and "a huge catfight" between Pelosi and the progressive lawmakers.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to the comment and described it as "sexist."
"'Catfight' is the sexist term Republicans use when two adult women happen to disagree with each other," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "The reason they find it so novel [and] exciting is [because] the GOP haven't elected enough women themselves to see that it can, in fact, be a normal occurrence in a functioning democracy."