‘The Squad’ appears intent on ‘grabbing power’ from Pelosi

The feud between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and four progressive freshman Democrats in Congress known colloquially as “The Squad” continues to simmer despite her attempt at a unifying speech to colleagues about keeping any quarrels in the family.

The Squad is comprised of the high-profile and dogged left-wing campaigners elected to the House in last year’s midterms: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar.

Pelosi warned House Democrats at a meeting on Wednesday “do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK,” and instead go to her with any complaints. She does not want Democratic disunity to be the media story.

“Every single person in Congress has a role. Our role is to take our votes and leadership’s role is to wrangle votes,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said Saturday at Netroots Nation, an annual conference for liberal activists.

“There’s a constant struggle oftentimes with people who have power about sharing that power. We are not really in the business of asking for the share of that power. We’re in the business of trying to grab that power,” she said.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said, “the people closest to the pain should be the closest to the power” and she’s not focused on “palace intrigue.”

“You have to be unapologetically you,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan.

Ocasio-Cortez has called Pelosi “outright disrespectful” and accused her of targeting freshman congresswomen of color after the speaker said the group “didn’t have any following. They’re four people, and that’s how many votes they got.”