3/1/2019 – Page 2 – Tom's Blog

AOC Warns of 'List' For Dems Who Vote With Republicans - Report

Bipartisanship not allowed by new radical Democrats

By Bradford Betz

After more than two dozen moderate Democrats broke from their party’s progressive wing and sided with Republicans on a legislative amendment Wednesday, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly sounded the alarm in a closed-door meeting Thursday and said those Democrats were “putting themselves on a list.”

The legislation that prompted the infighting was a bill that would expand federal background checks for gun purchases, the Washington Post reported. But a key provision requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be notified if illegal immigrants attempt to purchase guns saw 26 moderate Democrats side with Republicans.

CUOMO URGING AMAZON FOR SECOND CHANCE, DESPITE OCASIO-CORTEZ VICTORY LAP

According to the Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded her wayward center-leaning colleagues, telling them: “We are either a team or we’re not, and we have to make that decision.”

But Ocasio-Cortez reportedly took it a step further. She said she would help progressive activists unseat those moderates in their districts in the 2020 elections, the report said. Her spokesman Corbin Trent told the paper that she made the “list” comment during the meeting.

“She said that when activists ask her why she had to vote for a gun safety bill that also further empowers an agency that forcibly injects kids with psychotropic drugs, they’re going to want a list of names and she’s going to give it to them,” Trent said, referring to ICE.

Ocasio-Cortez has vehemently denounced ICE since bursting onto the political stage — but has also raised concerns among fellow Democrats that she’s picking fights with her own party.

“I’m sure Ms. Cortez means well, but there’s almost an outstanding rule: Don’t attack your own people,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told Politico earlier this year. “We just don’t need sniping in our Democratic Caucus.”

Her star status and outsize influence bringing Democrats on board with controversial policies like the Green New Deal have rankled some long-time members. But the freshman congresswoman appears unfazed by the pushback, often hitting back at her critics on Twitter.

In response to criticism earlier this year from former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a snarky: “New party, who dis?”

The gun bill on the floor earlier this week would expand the scope of background checks and require nearly all gun buyers to undergo one – including if they bought at a gun show, online or in a private transaction.

The wife of beleaguered Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is being accused of racial insensitivity for handing cotton to African-American students during tours of the Governor’s mansion, asking them to imagine picking the substance as slaves.

A state employee alleges that Pam Northam handed cotton to her daughter as well as another African-American eighth grader during a school field trip to the Governor’s mansion. Mrs. Northam apparently thought handing a ball of cotton to the students would be an appropriate lesson on the history of slavery in Virginia.

Leah Dozier Walker, the mother of the student who was offered cotton by Pam Northam, suggested the incident was indicative of a lack of reflection over racial insensitivity on the part of the Northams.

“The actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness.”

Virginia’s First Lady has been present throughout her husband’s blackface and KKK college yearbook scandal. She doused a suggestion to “moonwalk” from the beleaguered governor during a press conference in which he attempted to explain away his yearbook controversy. While she may have saved him serious embarrassment in preventing him from moonwalking at a press conference in which he sought to answer racism allegations, she may have been less politically suave in her decision to engage in racially insensitive behavior that many are comparing to her husband’s.

Northam appears obstinate in his desire to remain in office, despite widespread calls from parties such as the NAACP and Virginia state legislators for him to resign.