Nancy Pelosi Denies Existence of Feud with AOC: There Was Never Any Hatchet to Bury

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi denied that there was any need to bury the hatchet with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, praised the freshman New York congresswoman as “very gracious,” and said that any “personality differences” within her caucus are “minor.”

Following a private meeting with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Speaker Pelosi addressed reporters during her weekly briefing, where the subject of the meeting quickly came up.

Pelosi was asked, “Do you think you were able to bury the hatchet with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in your meeting?”

“I don’t think there ever was any hatchet,” Pelosi said, but was quickly reminded that AOC “called you downright disrespectful.”

“Well that’s, that’s, we are in a political arena, Pelosi replied, adding “Let me just say this, because I have some level of confidence and actually joy in seeing diversity in our caucus. We are the Democratic party. In our caucus, we have our differences. Respect that, instead of making a big issue of it, respect that.”

After a lengthy digression about past policy differences within the Democratic Party, Pelosi added: “But I don’t think there ever, I don’t think, I would never even say that it was a hatchet.”

Pelosi then described the meeting with AOC, saying “We sat down today, we had a good meeting, and the congresswoman is a very gracious member of Congress, so we had a very positive conversation about our districts and how we represent them, our country, and how we need to meet the needs, the diversity of America, and the challenges we face in terms of issues and how immigration and people are respected.”

“I again reference Ronald Reagan, as opposed to the current occupant of the White House,” she continued. “So I feel, I’ve always felt, again it’s like you’re in a family. In a family, you have your differences, but you’re still a family.”

When asked “What are your differences” with AOC, Pelosi declined to respond, saying “Well I’m not going to go into that, I’ve just said what I’m going to say on the subject.”

Ocasio-Cortez and her “squad” of three fellow freshman progressive congresswomen have been engaged in an open feud with Pelosi for months after Pelosi questioned their influence.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

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