Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar among progressive Democrats to slam border funding bill

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Thursday agreement to allow a vote on the Senate's Trump-approved $4.5 billion border funding bill with no restrictions did not sit well with several Democrats. The bill, which passed in a 305-102 vote, created tensions within the party, pitting House centrists against progressives, The Hill reports.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said an opportunity to address the humanitarian crisis at the border was "wasted."

Her colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took a slightly different, but still critical tone when assessing the bill. Ocasio-Cortez blamed the moderate Democrats who joined the Republicans for placing unwarranted trust in President Trump.

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Meanwhile, other House Democrats traded barbs throughout the day, particularly those who belong to the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus, who sided with and those in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The Hill described the tensions as "open warfare," as evidenced by CPC co-chair Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) calling the Problem Solvers Caucus the "Child Abuse Caucus" in a tweet. Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, said Pocan was "just trying to get retweets."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.