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Pelosi’s isolation gambit leaves four liberals, including Ayanna Pressley, struggling - The Boston Globe

posted onJuly 12, 2019
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Article snippet: WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admonished Democrats for personally attacking one another, warning in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that the party’s fracturing was jeopardizing its majority. Without naming names, her target was clear: the four liberal freshmen known as ‘‘the Squad.’’ ‘‘You got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK,’’ Pelosi, D-Calif., told Democrats. But ‘‘the Squad’’ - Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts - is convinced it is Pelosi who is being the bully. The four are struggling with the speaker’s moves to isolate them in recent weeks, according to interviews with the lawmakers, congressional aides and allies. Pelosi has made at least half-dozen remarks dismissing the group or their far-left proposals on the environment and health care. More recently she scorned their lonely opposition to the party’s emergency border bill last month. And she defended those comments Wednesday, saying, ‘‘I have no regrets about anything. Regrets is not what I do,’’ doubling down on her claim that the group has little power in the House. ‘‘When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,’’ Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post. ‘‘But th... Link to the full article to read more

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