Pelosi holds press conference amid tensions with freshmen Dems

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference Thursday. Pelosi condemned the administration’s immigration policies, and the upcoming raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday. She also said that the House would continue to advocate for migrant children held in detention facilities.

Pelosi called herself a “lioness” who would “protect our cubs,” referring to migrant children. The House had to pass a border security bill recently which did not include provisions to protect migrants.

Pelosi spoke amid increasing tensions between House leadership and prominent progressive freshmen members.

In an interview with the New York Times published Sunday, Pelosi minimized the influence of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, a diverse and young group of progressive freshmen who refer to themselves as “the Squad.” The four were the only Democrats to vote against the recent border security bill.

“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said in the interview. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”

In an interview with the Washington Post Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez said that Pelosi’s comments were “disrespectful.”

“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Post. “But the persistent singling out . . . it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful . . . the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”

Pelosi met with members of the Democratic caucus Wednesday telling them to come to leadership when they have a problem instead of tweeting about it.

“So, again, you got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it,” Pelosi told Democrats, according to Politico. “But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK.”

In her press conference Thursday, Pelosi did not elaborate on potential divisions within the caucus.

“I’ve said what I’m going to say in the caucus,” Pelosi said in the press conference. “I’m not going to be addressing it any further.”

“What I said in the caucus yesterday got an overwhelming response from my members,” Pelosi said. “We respect the value of every member of our caucus.”

Pelosi’s press conference also came hours before President Trump is expected to take executive action on adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. On Thursday morning, Mr. Trump announced he would hold a White House Rose Garden press conference on the topic in the afternoon.

The anticipated executive action comes as the president has been exhibiting frustration over the Supreme Court decision that his administration failed to provide an adequate justification for adding the citizenship question to the census. Multiple legal battles over the question are still playing out in lower courts.