New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez railed against her Republican colleagues for making a “terribly disrespectful comment” in a late-night Medicaid debate, according to a report from Politico.
The incident happened around 3am Wednesday as the House Energy and Commerce panel began marking up their portion of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Ocasio-Cortez was attempting to ask Republicans about the consequences their propose Medicaid cuts might be for patients having miscarriages.
Politico reports, “The broader legislation would exempt pregnant patients and those undergoing postpartum care from having to work as a condition of getting Medicaid services, but does not explicitly mention whether people experiencing a loss of pregnancy would need to be actively employed during that time, too.”
Congressman Randy Weber (R-TX) asked Ocasio-Cortez to “Address the Republicans. Let’s have a dialogue this way and not to a camera.”
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Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) then defended Ocasio-Cortez saying, “When the gentlelady from New York looks at the screen — if she wants to check her hair, she wants to say anything she wants to too that screen — she has the right to do so.”
Clarke added, “There’s not a member on this panel that can tell another member where to look, who to look at, and where they want to look. You need to back up off your rules because we are not going to be dealing with that tonight.”
Ocasio-Cortez waved to the camera, and said, “There are 13.7 million Americans on the other side of that screen there. Hello, hello. I’m talking to you because I work for you.”
She added, “They deserve to see what is happening here because there are plenty of districts, including Republican ones, where 25 percent of your constituents are on Medicaid, 40 percent of your constituents are on Medicaid.”
Weber asked Ocasio-Cortez to yield her time.
“I will not yield because it was a terribly disrespectful comment, and I will not yield to disrespectful men,” she said.
The GOP is looking to overhaul Medicaid and reach their $880 billion savings goal.
