Republican Rep. Ted Yoho verbally attacked Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the steps of the Capitol building on Monday over her recent claim that crime has risen in New York City during the pandemic because of poverty and unemployment, the Hill first reported Tuesday.
“You are out of your freaking mind,” Yoho, who is retiring from his Florida seat this year after four terms in office, reportedly told his colleague.
The Bronx native called Yoho “rude” before walking into the building to cast a vote. As Yoho walked away from the congresswoman and down the Capitol steps with GOP Rep. Roger Williams, he reportedly called Ocasio-Cortez a “f—ing b—h.”
Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill she’d never been treated in that manner by a colleague before.
“That kind of confrontation hasn’t ever happened to me — ever,” she said. “I’ve never had that kind of abrupt, disgusting kind of disrespect levied at me.”
Williams told The Hill that he’d ignored the entire back-and-forth and didn’t even know what it was about.
“I was actually thinking, as I was walking down the stairs, I was thinking about some issues I’ve got in my district that need to get done,” Williams said. “I don’t know what their topic was. There’s always a topic, isn’t there?”
Ocasio-Cortez responded to The Hill’s report in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning in which she accused Williams of “lying” about his involvement in the interaction and said she’d never talked with Yoho before Monday’s hostile encounter.
“I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday,” she tweeted. “Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door. But hey, ‘b*tches’ get stuff done.”
She accused Williams of joining in on Yoho’s attacks on her.
“Gotta love Republican courage from Rep @RogerWilliamsTX: when he undeniably sees another man engaged in virulent harassment of a young woman, just pretend you never saw it in the most cartoonish manner possible and keep pushing (He’s lying, by the way. He joined in w/ Yoho),” she wrote, adding, “What’s wild to me @RogerWilliamsTX is why would you blatantly lie to a reporter who saw this exchange? You were yelling at me too, about ‘throwing urine.'”
Later on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez told Yahoo News that Yoho approached and berated her without warning.
“Out of nowhere, Yoho comes up to me and puts his finger in my face and flies off in a rage,” she said. “He started going off about shootings and bread and nonsense, calling me crazy, shameful, out of my mind, etc.”
She added that Williams also began “yelling” at her and said something about “throwing urine,” but she didn’t know what he meant by it.
“I said [Yoho] was being rude and that this was unbelievable and started to walk away,” she went ont. “He said, ‘I’M RUDE? You’re calling ME rude?!’ And I just kept walking to my vote.”
The congresswoman said she heard Yoho “muttering insults at me” as she walked away, but didn’t hear him curse at her.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told NBC News that he would meet with Yoho on Tuesday to discuss the incident.
—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 21, 2020
