‘The Squad,’ Not Nancy Pelosi, Runs The Show In Congress

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s avoidance of impeachment was going to be one of many problems the House speaker would have with “The Squad.” Over the summer, her grip on power began to weaken, as she tried to put down a party rebellion.

Pelosi’s compromise border security funding bill initially had only nominal Democratic opposition. But The Squad, consisting of Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley, wanted to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not fund it. The Senate approved a bipartisan bill 84-8. The Squad’s tweetstorms, however, created outrage. The congresswomen went in front of the microphones to declare the bill inhumane because it didn’t gut immigration enforcement.

Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, tweeted that Democrats who voted for the compromise border bill were “hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.”