- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was spotted chatting with Matt Gaetz on the house floor on Tuesday.
- She was also seen talking to Paul Gosar, who in 2021 released an anime clip of himself killing her.
- Ocasio-Cortez told reporters that their conversations were about voting for president.
In a rare display on Tuesday, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was seen talking with the most unlikely of her congressional colleagues: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar.
Ocasio-Cortez was seen speaking briefly to Gaetz on the floor of Congress on Tuesday. The conversation between the two came as a surprise, given how they clashed and the ideological difference between the progressive congresswoman and the House Freedom Caucus member.
—The Recount (@therecount) January 3, 2023
Speaking to The Intercept, Ocasio-Cortez said Gaetz told him that House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy — who is currently in the running for House Speaker — is trying to convince the GOP that he can make a deal with the Democratic Party to get the job.
In response, Ocasio-Cortez says she told Gaetz that Democrats won’t help McCarthy. McCarthy fell short of the votes he needed to secure the presidency in three separate polls on Tuesday. And by the third vote, the number of people voting against him had increased.
“McCarthy was suggesting that he could get the Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept. “And I checked the facts and said absolutely not.”
In another bizarre turn of events, Ocasio-Cortez was also seen sitting next to Gosar and talking to him, nodding and smiling.
—The Recount (@therecount) January 3, 2023
Ocasio-Cortez told Semafor on Tuesday that Gosar also approached her to ask if Democrats were willing to help McCarthy win the presidency by walking out of the chamber and lowering the voting threshold. Ocasio-Cortez told Semafor that she told Gosar the same thing she told Gaetz: that her party would not help McCarthy.
Gabe Ferris, ABC reporter also spoke to Ocasio-Cortez about the conversation between her and Gosar. The New York congresswoman told Ferris she would “never step aside” to pave the way for McCarthy and would support Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The MP had a rich history with Gosar. In November 2021, he released a violent anime clip showing himself killing her. The video prompted Ocasio-Cortez to call Gosar a “creepy member I work with who raises money for neo-Nazi groups” who shared a “fantastic video” of himself killing her. That month, Gosar was removed from his position on the committee by a Democratic-led Congress. He later refused to apologize for posting the video, comparing his censorship to that of Alexander Hamilton.
Ocasio-Cortez told Semafor on Tuesday that Gosar did not apologize for the video during their conversation on Tuesday.
For his part, Gosar joked about the exchange, posting a screenshot of him and Ocasio-Cortez smiling during their conversation.
“So I said ‘The combustion engine was actually an engineering miracle that people take for granted today…'” Gosar tweeted.
-Representing. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) January 3, 2023
gosar wrote in a separate tweet Tuesday that he and Ocasio-Cortez were talking “about the problem of previous presidents having too much authority and thereby minimizing each member’s potential contribution to debate in the House.” The congressman did not say if he and Ocasio-Cortez agreed on the matter.
AOC’s Gaetz-Gosar Group Sparks Intrigue and Anger
Ocasio-Cortez’s conversations with Gaetz and Gosar sparked intrigue. The liberal Meidas Touch Twitter account tweeted tuesday that someone should get a lip reader to decipher the conversation between Gaetz and Ocasio-Cortez.
Meanwhile, the conversations have drawn the ire of right-wing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has broken with her House Freedom Caucus and backed McCarthy’s bid for president.
Reprimanding both Gosar and Gaetz, Greene tweeted Tuesday that “making plans with the Democrats is not what any Republican should do.” Greene also expressed concern that Gaetz, Gosar and Ocasio-Cortez found something in common in not supporting McCarthy, Tweeter Tuesday: “First Gaetz and Good, now Gosar. They never talk to him.”
Representatives for Gaetz, Gosar, Greene and Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the House failed to elect a speaker on Tuesday after right-wing Republicans mutinied against McCarthy and refused to back his bid for president. This is the first time in a century that the House has not chosen a speaker on the first vote.
Voting is now expected to continue on Wednesday.
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