Ocasio-Cortez says Greene, not McCarthy, is ‘running the caucus’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday argued Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — not Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — is calling the shots in the Republican caucus. 

“Speaker McCarthy, in order to become Speaker, had to cut some deals we still don’t know the details on. Do you think he’s actually running his caucus? Or do you think someone else is?” host Jen Psaki asked Ocasio-Cortez on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.” 

“He’s not,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Pressed on who she does think is running the show, she added, “I think you’ve got Marjorie Taylor Greene running the caucus.” 

Greene “makes very common public statements to that effect,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Every time something irks her, she communicates that McCarthy is doing her bidding. And — and I think that this is something that is quite clear. I think that Speaker McCarthy is stuck between having to please the most racist and heinous elements of his party with having to maintain a majority.  And he is choosing to side with the extremists.” 

McCarthy won the Speakership earlier this year after several days and 15 rounds of voting. He reportedly made concessions to conservative holdouts in order to get the votes he needed to take the top House slot.

Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday also said she’s not sure McCarthy will have the votes to pass his debt limit proposal.

“And I think that that’s actually the political situation that we’re in right now, is that he’s, kind of, brought up himself up a creek without a paddle,” the New York congresswoman said.