Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is targeting Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and questioning why he is hesitant to commit to confirming interior secretary nominee Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M.
Her comments came in a Monday tweet, where she noted Manchin had supported then-President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions.
“Jeff Sessions was so openly racist that even [Ronald] Reagan couldn’t appoint him,” she wrote. “Manchin voted to confirm him. Sessions then targeted immigrant children for wide-scale human rights abuses w/ family separation. Yet the 1st Native woman to be Cabinet Sec is where Manchin finds unease?”
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came in response to a tweet from Geoff Bennett, White House correspondent for NBC News, who reported Manchin is said to have “remaining questions” about Haaland.
Haaland would be the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency. The Laguna Pueblo member is a two-term congresswoman. Her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy Committee is set for Tuesday, according to The Hill.
In another Monday tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said Haaland’s appointment “would be historic.”
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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