AOC spotted chatting with Gaetz, Gosar during speakership vote [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was spotted chatting with far-right Republican lawmakers on the House floor on Tuesday.
• AOC was seen talking to Rep. Matt Gaetz and then also huddled with Paul Gosar in the chamber.
• The Democrat congresswoman told reporters they were talking about the speakership vote.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was spotted chatting with far-right Republicans on the House floor on Tuesday, sparking intrigue.

The Democrat congresswoman was seen speaking to Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz briefly and then also chatted with Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar. The conversation between Ocasio-Cortez and Gosar came as a surprise, considering the GOP lawmaker in 2021 posted an anime clip of himself killing her.

Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept that Gaetz told her that House Speaker hopeful Kevin McCarthy is trying to convince the Republicans he can cut a deal with the Democrats to get the job.

The congresswoman said she told Gaetz that the Democratic Party will not bail McCarthy out. The House Republican Leader failed to get the 218 votes he needed to secure the speakership on three separate ballots. Twenty Republicans voted against him in favor of Rep. Jim Jordan.

“McCarthy was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept. “And I fact-checked and said absolutely not.”

Ocasio-Cortez said Gosar also approached her to ask if the Democrats were willing to help McCarthy win the speakership. The congresswoman told Semafor that she told the Arizona lawmaker the same thing she told Gaetz — the Democrats would not be helping McCarthy out.

Ocasio-Cortez told ABC reporter Gabe Ferris she would “never” help clear the path for McCarthy, and that she would support new House Minority Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

 In a tweet on Tuesday, Gosar wrote that he and Ocasio-Cortez were talking “about the problem of the prior speakerships having too much authority and thus minimizing each member’s potential contribution to the House debate.”

The conversations made Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who supported McCarthy’s speakership bid, furious. She rebuked both Gosar and Gaetz in a tweet Tuesday.

Greene posted that “making plans with Democrats is not what any Republican should be doing.” Greene also expressed concern that Gaetz, Gosar, and Ocasio-Cortez had found something in common in not supporting McCarthy, tweeting on Tuesday: “First Gaetz and Good, now Gosar. They never talk to her.”

Source: The Guardian