“If he wants to keep lying, it’s his business,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Friday.
In the interview, Ocasio-Cortez added more details about Yoho’s side before he allegedly called her a “fucking bitch” within reach of a journalist for The Hill newspaper. Ocasio-Cortez was climbing the steps on the eastern side of the Capitol to vote on Monday afternoon when both Yoho and Texas Republican Representative Roger Williams approached her as they descended the steps.
Yoho erupted instantly and continued “to escalate the situation,” he said.
“Do you really think people shoot and kill each other because they are hungry? You know, you are amazing. You are disgusting,” Yoho said, according to Ocasio-Cortez, saying the Florida conservative was wagging his finger. to her
Ocasio-Cortez then said that “she tried to calm him down, but he didn’t.”
“And then I told him he was being rude and he got even more mad when I called him rude,” he said.
Meanwhile, Williams looked at Yoho first and then Williams “literally started screaming about throwing urine,” Ocasio-Cortez said Friday.
“He started talking about throwing urine,” he said. “I don’t know what he was talking about. I think maybe he was talking about an incident at some protest somewhere I don’t know. But he started talking about throwing urine and at the time, he was so puzzled.” I thought these people are crazy. “
She added, “I was coming down the stairs with Yoho, shoulder to shoulder. And at this point, they were just yelling at the world,” referring to the two men.
Yoho’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
On Friday, Williams declined to comment on Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that he was involved in intimidating her. He said “no” when asked if he heard Yoho call her “disgusting”. And she would no longer discuss the incident or the New York Democrat’s allegations.
“We put in a statement right after it happened,” Williams told CNN. “I’m not going to talk about any of that.”
In Tuesday’s statement, Williams’ office said: “Congressman did not participate in the exchange between Congressman Yoho and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, nor did he listen to what was said in their conversation. Any comments heard or attributed to Congressman Williams were part of a separate conversation that he and Congressman Yoho were having. Congressman Williams would have immediately condemned that kind of language towards any colleague. ”
When asked by the Hill journalist who watched the exchange for the first time about the incident, Williams claimed he was not paying attention to the exchange.
“I was actually thinking, as I was going down the stairs, I was thinking about some problems that I have in my district that need to be resolved,” Williams told the newspaper. “I don’t know what her theme was. There is always a theme, right?”
On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez called those comments “laughable.”
“The fact that Rep. Williams denies that he even said it and then immediately told a reporter that he was thinking of trouble in his district is quite ridiculous,” he said. “And it just speaks to the lack of integrity that he not only had at the time, but the lack of integrity that he continues to have just not just acknowledging and saying, ‘Listen, this was a lapse of judgment. I’m sorry. I should have said something. Or sorry for what my colleague did. ‘”
Ocasio-Cortez said Friday that “they believe their little man’s card will be taken from them if they apologize for their absurd behavior.”
After the incident was reported in the press, Yoho went to the flat on Wednesday and said, “I get up to apologize for the abrupt form of the conversation I had with my New York colleague. Admittedly, we disagree with the policies and visions for the United States, but that does not mean that we should be disrespectful. ” He denied calling her “fucked up,” although his office said he was calling his policies “lies.”
On the floor, Yoho spoke about his 45-year-old wife, two daughters, and argued that he was “passionate about those affected by poverty.”
“I cannot apologize for my passion or for loving my god, my family and my country,” he added.
Then, on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez went to the flat and delivered a more than nine-minute speech calling Williams and Yoho for their actions. She said Yoho came to the floor of the house “to make excuses for his behavior.”
“What I do have problems with is using women, wives and daughters as shields and excuses for bad behavior,” he said. “Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters. I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho’s youngest daughter. I am also someone’s daughter. Fortunately, my father is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter”. ”
In response, Yoho said in a statement that Ocasio-Cortez was exaggerating the exchange and again denied using the sexist insult against him, saying that he has “every right” to account for the conversation, but that he has no right to inflate , talk about my family or give an account that did not happen for political purposes. The fact remains that I am not going to apologize for something I did not say. ”
When asked about that statement, Ocasio-Cortez said: “We are not discussing an accusation. This is not an accusation that I am making. This is an incident reported in the press.”
Monday’s exchange was brief, he said, lasting about 20-30 seconds. She said she does not recall interacting with him before Monday.
“Because another area where he doesn’t tell the truth is that he continues to use this word ‘conversation,'” Ocasio-Cortez said. “There was no conversation about it. I was walking. He approached me, approached me, and then I walked away because he continued to escalate the situation.”
CNN’s Ali Main and Haley Byrd contributed to this report.
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