Watch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez excoriate Mitch McConnell on House floor

"In breaking the Senate, we are abandoning our people."

Published November 20, 2020 11:51PM (EST)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (Getty/Salon)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (Getty/Salon)

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the House floor Friday on behalf of her working-class district and struggling Americans across the country to call out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for sending members of the upper chamber home for Thanksgiving without striking a deal on coronavirus pandemic relief legislation.

The New York Democrat decided to rise and speak out, she said, because McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, "decided to break the Senate."

"And he broke the Senate," she said, "as there are thousands of people in Texas lined up for food lines. He broke the Senate while hospitals no longer have beds to house the sick."

"He broke the Senate, and dismissed the Senate, while 30 million Americans are on the brink of eviction," she continued. "He dismissed the Senate when every single day, when we go back to our communities, people are asking us, 'Where is there going to be help? Is there going to be a second stimulus check? Are we going to get the resources that we need?"

Recognizing that Americans continue to grapple with the "extraordinary health and economic hardship of the Covid-19 pandemic," the congresswoman emphasized that "in breaking the Senate, we are abandoning our people."

Watch:


By Jessica Corbett

Jessica Corbett is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow her on Twitter: @corbett_jessica.

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