Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said, “In chaos, anything is possible,” after she was seen in floor conversations with GOP Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.) during the vote for House Speaker.
Ocasio-Cortez received some attention on Twitter for talking with the two Republican congressmen with whom the New York lawmaker has had contentious relationships in the past.
The two Republicans are among the chief opponents of House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) becoming the Speaker.
She told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner in an interview that the discussion concerned what actions Democrats might take as the Speaker vote continued, including whether they might “defect” to support McCarthy or leave the floor. She said she told them that Democrats would remain on the floor and behind House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) for Speaker.
“I think what was important today was to send the message that we were united behind Hakeem Jeffries as the now-minority leader, or as the leader of the Democrats, in that there would be no defections, that Democrats are here, we’re not going anywhere,” she said.
“If they want to play ball, we’re open to that,” she added.
The race for Speaker was thrown into chaos on Tuesday after the House failed to choose its leader on the first ballot for the first time in a century. The election has only ever gone to more than one ballot once since the Civil War.
McCarthy has received just above 200 votes in each of the three rounds of voting thus far, but he is still short of the threshold he needs to win the Speakership. Jeffries has won more votes for Speaker than McCarthy, 212, because all Democrats have voted for him, but he is still short of winning the 218 majority.
McCarthy tried to win over support from the remaining Republican House members, but he was unable to gather enough support ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
All members of the House voted Tuesday, meaning that the winner of the Speaker race needed 218 votes to be chosen. That number would be lower if any members were absent or voted “present.”
A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez said to CNN that she told Gosar that Democrats did not have any plan to leave the floor or vote “present.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Gosar have butted heads in the past, notably after he shared an anime video online in November 2021 that was edited to show him killing her and swinging swords at President Biden. She called on the House to censure Gosar over the video, saying that the body must show it does not tolerate violence.
Gosar claimed that the video was symbolic of the battle over immigration. He said he does not “espouse violence” toward anyone but did not apologize.
The House censured Gosar and removed him from committee assignments over the video.