Pelosi Offers ‘Sharp’ Response When Asked Why AOC Has Questioned Party’s Future Leadership

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has questioned the party’s future leadership in 🏛️Congress, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is offering a “sharp” response.

CBS’ Lesley Stahl spoke with Pelosi during an interview, which aired over the weekend, where she noted that Pelosi is 80 years old, Pelosi’s “number two, Steny Hoyer’s 81” and the speaker’s “number three, Jim Clyburn, is 80.”

After asking why she has not “brought young people into the leadership,” as Stahl put it, Pelosi said, “Because we have. You perhaps don’t know.”

Stahl then asked her, “Why does AOC complain that you have not been grooming younger people for leadership?”

Pelosi quickly responded, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her– because we are.”

Stahl noted that the House speaker’s response was “kind of sharp, kinda dismissing her,” to which Pelosi said, “I’m not dismissing her. I respect her.”

“I think she’s very effective as are other– many other members in our caucus that the press doesn’t pay attention to. But they are there and they are building support for what comes next,” Pelosi added.

Watch Pelosi’s interview below:

Ocasio-Cortez previously said during a podcast with The Intercept that she does “think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party.”