Pelosi mocked Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad in a new book by talking like a baby: 'See how perfect I am and how pure?'

• Nancy Pelosi criticized the "Squad" as posing as "perfect" and "pure" progressives, a new book says.
• USA Today's Susan Page said Pelosi told her some members "pose for holy pictures" while others legislate.
• She said she valued "operational" Democrats over activist members who stir up trouble in the party.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the left-wing "Squad" as posing as "perfect" and "pure" progressives and rejecting the compromise necessary to achieve legislative results, a new book says.

USA Today's Susan Page writes in her forthcoming book, "Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power," an excerpt of which was published in Politico on Thursday, that Pelosi had adopted a childlike voice when discussing them in an interview in July 2019.

"Some people come here, as Dave Obey would have said, to pose for holy pictures," Pelosi told Page, referring to the former representative.

Page wrote of Pelosi: "She changed her voice and mimicked a child trying to make a solemn show of piety. 'See how perfect I am and how pure?'"

The speaker insisted that "operational" Democratic lawmakers willing to put their heads down and compromise on legislation were more effective than activist members, Page wrote.

"When you come in, cross that door, take that oath, you have to be oriented toward results," Pelosi told Page. "Have confidence in what you believe in, have humility to listen to somebody else, because you're not a one-person show. This is the Congress of the United States."

Ocasio-Cortez has been critical of Pelosi and other Democratic leaders in Congress. Last year, she said that the party needed "new leadership" but conceded that progressives hadn't prepared a new leader to take over.

"The internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there is very little option for succession," Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept in December. "The speaker has indicated that she may be looking at transitioning and leaving at some point, and the left isn't really making a plan for that either. It's something that we need to think about."