AOC says her life ‘completely transformed’ for the better after Pelosi stepped down from leadership

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Dia Dipasupil and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A new book about “The Squad” details Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s relationship with Nancy Pelosi.Though they’ve worked together at times, their relationship has also had complications.Ocasio-Cortez says colleagues have treated her better since Pelosi stepped down from leadership.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may both be Democrats, but that doesn’t mean the two have always agreed.

A new Guardian report on a forthcoming book about the “Squad” from reporter Ryan Grim offers further details on their relationship — including the generational gaps and strategic differences that shone through in phone calls and meetings between the Pelosi and the New York Democrat over the last several years.

According to the book, Pelosi “spoke for nearly the entire lunch” when the two first met in San Francisco in July 2018, shortly after her upset primary victory against Rep. Joe Crowley.

Pelosi reportedly fretted at that meeting that the slogan “Abolish ICE” had been “injected into American political discourse by the Russians,” leading Ocasio-Cortez and her team to avoid calls and meetings the next time Pelosi was in New York.

“The amount of times she told me that stupid ‘I have protest signs older than you in my basement’ shit,” said Ocasio-Cortez, according to the book. “Like yeah but mine don’t collect dust.”

Ocasio-Cortez also indicated that her life in Congress has been much better since Pelosi stepped down from leadership at the end of the previous Congress, leading to the ascent of fellow New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

At the time, Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times that there was “a lot of healing that needs to be done in our caucus,” seemingly indicating a hesitancy about life under Leader Jeffries.

But according to the book, her circumstances drastically improved.

“I thought things would get worse,” said Ocasio-Cortez, according to the book. “I thought a lot of my misery was due to leadership more broadly having a thing against me. But … my life has completely transformed. It’s crazy. And it’s that that made me realise it was kind of just [Pelosi] the whole time.”

“Senior members talk to me, [committee] chairs are nice to me, people want to work together,” the congresswoman continued. “I’m shocked. I couldn’t even get floor time before.”

A spokesman for Pelosi declined to comment for this story.

In May, Business Insider reported that Jeffries was viewed as more of a consensus-builder than Pelosi — not just by progressives, but by more moderate members of the party.

“There was a formality and a seniority to her office that gave it kind of this vaunted quality,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said of Pelosi at the time. “Hakeem is just much more approachable for a pull-aside on the House floor, for a quick text exchange, for a quick phone call.”

Though no longer formally a member of leadership, Pelosi has remained in Congress as a rank-and-file lawmaker since stepping down, and she is running for re-election next year.