Ocasio-Cortez slams Pelosi and House leadership for hogging power

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

It's no secret that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) doesn't always see eye to eye with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others in Democratic congressional leadership. But, she told The Intercept in a podcast interview Wednesday, much of her discontent stems from the fact that the caucus' current top crop has been hogging power without "any real grooming of a next generation of leadership."

The congressmember, referring to both Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said "a lot of this is not just about these two personalities, but also the structural shifts that these two personalities have led in their time in leadership. The structural shifts of power in the House, both in process and rule, to concentrate power in party leadership of both parties, frankly, but in the Democratic Party leadership to such a degree that an individual member has far less power than they did 30, 40, 50 years ago."

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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.