WASHINGTON – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vigorously rejected a fellow Republican’s words of contrition on Wednesday after she refused to apologize for referring to her with a vulgar and sexist expletive, denying having spoken the words.
Representative Ted Yoho, a Florida Republican, appeared in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to express regret for injecting “conflict” into Congress and being “abrupt” in a confrontation this week with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York.
“I get up today to apologize for the abrupt form of the conversation I had with my colleague from New York,” Yoho said. “It is true that we do not agree with the policies and visions for the United States, but that does not mean that we should be disrespectful.”
But a short time later, he added: “The words of offensive insults that the press attributed to me were never spoken to my colleagues, and if they were interpreted in this way, I apologize for their misunderstanding.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez lashed out at Mr. Yoho on Twitter after his speech, saying that he refused to take responsibility for his actions.
“I will not teach my nieces and youth that they see this as an apology and what they should learn to accept,” wrote Mrs. Ocasio-Cortez. She said that Mr. Yoho was lying when he described their interaction as a “conversation”.
“It was a verbal assault,” he wrote. “This is not an apology.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a favorite of the progressive left and frequent target of Republicans, said Tuesday that she had been the victim of “virulent harassment.”
In a confrontation Monday reported by The Hill newspaper, Mr. Yoho approached Mrs. Ocasio-Cortez on the steps of the Capitol and told her she was “gross” for suggesting that poverty was driving crime in the city. from New York.
After a brief but tense exchange, the newspaper said in a later shared account by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter, Mr. Yoho walked away from her, uttering a vulgar phrase, which includes an expletive that is often used to denigrate women.
In the tweet, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez embraced the insult and commented, “But hey, ‘b * tches’ do things.”
In his comments on Wednesday, Mr. Yoho tried to explain the episode by saying that he was passionate about how Americans can get out of poverty without resorting to breaking the law, because he himself had experienced poverty.
“I cannot apologize for my passion or for loving my God, my family, and my country,” Yoho said.
Representative Steny H. Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland and majority leader, said he hoped Mr. Yoho would learn to behave with more respect.
“Sir. Yoho needed no apology for his passion for poverty and the oppressed,” Hoyer said. “But he must remember and acknowledge that the person with whom he spoke so inappropriately was one of the strongest fighters in this Congress for whom less they have. “
Mr. Yoho’s spokesman said that the congressman admitted having used bad words during the exchange, but that he had not spoken the words attributed to him, which were heard by the journalist who wrote the story. Instead, the spokesperson said, Mr. Yoho had used an epithet for the corral to describe what he thought of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s policies.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez cheerfully embraced the insult on Tuesday, posting an Instagram clip of Doja Cat’s song “Boss Bitch”.
“Do you know what we say when frail men call us bitches because we defend ourselves and other human beings?” she wrote. “Keep shining, fight for others and let enemies get angry.”
But after Mr. Yoho’s speech on Wednesday, she expressed her outrage, noting that the Republican had not directly apologized to her.
“He didn’t even say my name,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
