House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issued a stern condemnation of Rep. Ted Yoho after he reportedly got into a heated exchange in the Capitol with the left-wing freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that allegedly ended with Yoho uttering the words “f—— b—-.”
“The comments related to me were despicable,” Hoyer, D-Md., said. “Unacceptable. Mr. Yoho owes not only the Congresswoman an apology, but an apology on the floor of the House.”
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He added that Yoho, R-Fla., was acting like a “bully. It was the antithesis to John Lewis. It needs to be sanctioned.”
The Hill first reported the encounter, in which Yoho and Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., were allegedly walking opposite ways on a set of stairs. 360aproko reported that Yoho called Ocasio-Cortez “disgusting” over comments she made about crime in New York City being propelled by the pandemic and poverty rather than a lack of policing.
“Do we think this has to do with the fact that there’s record unemployment in the United States right now?” Ocasio-Cortez said in a virtual town hall with The Hill earlier this month. “The fact that people are at a level of economic desperation that we have not seen since the Great Recession?”
She added: “Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren’t paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent and so they go out, and they need to feed their child and they don’t have money so… they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry.”
Those comments upset many on the right, who pointed out that rioters tearing down statues, vandals defacing businesses and government buildings, and a significant uptick in murder rates in many big cities likely have little to do with people attempting to put food on their tables.
Yoho said she was “out of your freaking mind,” to which the congresswoman responded that the comments were “rude.”
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The Hill reported that shortly after the two continued on their way, Yoho made the “f——- b—-” comment.
Ocasio-Cortez reacted to the encounter on Twitter Tuesday.
“I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday,” she said. “Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door. But hey, “b—–s” get stuff done.”
Ocasio-Cortez also accused Texas Republican Rep. Roger Williams of “yelling at me too, about ‘throwing urine.'” Williams’ communications director Heather Douglass disputed that claim.
“The Congressman did not participate in the exchange between Congressman Yoho and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, nor did he hear what was said in their conversation,” she said. “Any comments overheard or attributed to Congressman Williams were part of a separate conversation that he and Congressman Yoho were having. Congressman Williams would have immediately condemned that type of language towards any colleague.”
360aproko News has reached out to the offices of Ocasio-Cortez and Yoho but did not receive immediate responses.
