Pelosi slams progressives Ocasio-Cortez and Jayapal in interview: report

She was reportedly "joyless" about her victory of maintaining her position as speaker.
Nancy Pelosi with Representative AOC
By Madeleine Hubbard

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wa.) for fighting to be progressive "queen bee" and creating problems for midterm elections.

Pelosi's rebukes are featured in "This Will Not Pass," a new book that is scheduled to be released next month.

The California Democrat also "resented that she had to 'beg' her Democratic colleagues to give her the job as speaker again," Punchbowl News reported about the book.

“During the infrastructure vote, Pelosi was angry 'and in private she vented about the progressive blockade that had forced her to cancel the infrastructure vote,'" according to an excerpt of the book from Punchbowl. "She told another House Democrat that Pramila Jayapal and Ocasio-Cortez were vying to be the ‘queen bee’ of the left, but that their reward might be serving in the House minority after the next election."

Pelosi also blamed progressives for harming Democrats' prospects with immigrant groups over support of socialism and with religious groups over abortion.

"In a few strictly confidential conversations she pointed a finger leftward. Pelosi told one senior lawmaker that Democrats had alienated Asian and Hispanic immigrants with loose talk of socialism," the excerpt reads. "In some of the same communities, the Italian Catholic speaker said, Democrats had not been careful enough about the way they spoke about abortion among new Americans who were devout people of faith."

Previously, AOC tweeted that "Abortion bans aren’t just about controlling women’s bodies. They’re about controlling women’s sexuality. Owning women. From limiting birth control to banning comprehensive sex ed, US religious fundamentalists are working hard to outlaw sex that falls outside their theology."

While Ocasio-Cortez is a member of Democratic Socialists of America, Jayapal has defended socialist ideas on several occasions.

Punchbowl revealed that the House speaker was reportedly resentful that she had to "beg" to become speaker again. 

She was "joyless" about her victory of maintaining her position. 

"You couldn’t pay me a billion dollars to run for Speaker again," Pelosi said, according to the book.

Pelosi plans on running for reelection this fall after previously stating that she would step down from running for speaker in 2022.