The House Democratic caucus has a stronger progressive force within it than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes, but the group is not as organized as its right-wing counterpart, according to Jonathan Swan.
Rep. Pelosi's, D-Calif. comments in a New York Times interview may be underestimating the left-wing of her party in Congress, the Axios reporter claimed Tuesday on "Special Report."
"They have a huge following," Swan said of progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. -- who opposed a $4.5 million humanitarian bill to address humanitarian issues at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"I think if you look at the votes against this bill, it was a lot more than four.
"They don't have an organized group like the Freedom Caucus, which was formed on the basis of being able to block legislation. So on that very basis, the comparison falls over."
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Conceived at a 2015 GOP retreat in Dauphin County, Pa. and currently led by Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the House Freedom Caucus is a group of conservative lawmakers who often buck some of the more moderate Republicans in the House.
However, Swan said he viewed the progressive faction as more considerate of Pelosi.
"The weird thing is they are being very deferential to leadership," he said. "They supported Pelosi when she was getting hit from the right. That's the weirdest thing about this. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and some of the progressives actually supported her."
In the Times interview, Pelosi appeared to dismiss Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow progressives.
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"All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world, but they didn't have any following," she said.
"They are four people and that so many votes they got. We have to have a solution, not just a Twitter fight."
In response to those comments, unsurprisingly, Ocasio-Cortez hit back Saturday night.
“That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment,” she tweeted. “And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country.”
She then defended the use of social media by herself and her fellow newcomers in Congress, over the more traditional – and often more expensive and time-consuming – methods favored by longer-serving lawmakers.
On the other side of the aisle, the House Freedom Caucus became such a thorn in the side of former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio at times, the ex-lawmaker offered an expletive-laden critique of its members after he left Washington.
In a 2017 interview, he labeled fellow Ohioan and Freedom Caucus founding member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a "legislative terrorist" and ripped former Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.
Fox News' Liam Quinn contributed to this report.
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