WATCH: AOC Soundly Condemns Rep. Yoho for Calling Her a ‘F*cking B*tch’ in Passionate House Floor Speech
Days after being berated by Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) on the Capitol steps, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tore into the Florida congressman for his conduct.
In an impassioned speech on the House floor, Ocasio-Cortez gave her full account of the incident:
“About two days ago, I was walking up the steps of the Capitol when Representative Yoho suddenly turned a corner … and accosted me on the steps right here in front of our Nation’s Capitol. I was minding my own business, walking up the steps. And Representative Yoho put his finger in my face, he called me disgusting, he called me crazy, he called me out of my mind. And he called me dangerous.
And then he took a few more steps, and after I had recognized his comments as rude, he walked away and said, ‘I’m rude? You’re calling me rude?’
I took a few steps ahead and I walked inside and cast my vote. … I walked back out and there were reporters in the front of the Capitol, and in front of reporters Representative Yoho called me, and I quote, a ‘fucking bitch.’
In remarks Wednesday on the House floor, Yoho offered a statement of remorse over the incident.
“I rise to apologize for the abrupt manner of the conversation I had with my colleague from New York,” Yoho said. “It is true that we disagree on policies and visions for America. But that does not mean we should be disrespectful.”
Ocasio-Cortez rejected what she deemed a non-apology from the Florida congressman, saying that she was prepared to move on from the incident until she heard Yoho’s statement on Wednesday.
“Representative Yoho decided to come to the floor of the House of Representatives and make excuses for his behavior, and that I could not let go,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She added that she could not allow her nieces, victims of verbal abuse, and others, “to see that excuse, and to see our Congress accept it as legitimate, and accept it as an apology. And to accept silence as a form of acceptance. I could not allow that to stand.”
The New York representative noted that Yoho, in his Wednesday remarks, invoked his love for his daughter.
“I am someone’s daughter too,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “My father, thankfully, not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter.”
She added, “I do not need Representative Yoho to apologize to me. Clearly, he does not want to. Clearly, when given the opportunity, he will not. And I will not stay up late at night waiting for an apology from a man who has no remorse over…using abusive language toward women.”
Watch above, via CSPAN.
