Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) sidestepped a question Sunday on whether she would vote in favor of ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) if a motion to vacate were brought by a member of the far-right flank of his conference.
“We would have to cross that bridge when we get to it,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” when asked whether she’d vote alongside lawmakers like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a chief rival of McCarthy's.
“That is something that the Democratic caucus would also have to come together on and decide how we want to navigate as a collective as well,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, said she “absolutely” thinks there are grounds to vote to oust McCarthy, calling him a “very weak” leader and pointing to what looks to be an increasingly certain government shutdown at the end of the month.
“Speaker McCarthy has been very weak. I think that he has also engaged in just absolutely terrible decision-making for the American people – from continuing to try to cement denying the right to an abortion among women, to policy that denies the reality of climate change, to basic fiscal irresponsibility and recklessness,” she said.
“We are at the brink of a shutdown right now. And so, absolutely, I think there is grounds,” she said. “However, we are also in the midst of an extremely chaotic Republican Party. And we do not want chaos to reign in Washington either. So again, I think that is a bridge that we'd cross if we get to it.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments come as the government approaches the end-of-fiscal-year deadline on Friday and has not made substantial progress on passing a short-term continuing resolution (CR).
Several Republicans have expressed frustration with Congress’s habit of passing CRs in lieu of passing all 12 appropriations bills and, as a result, have pledged not to support any CRs – even as the likelihood of passing appropriations bills that can get to the president’s desk by Friday is slim to none.
