The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) has called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to publicly censure Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida following his vulgar verbal assault against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on the Capitol steps earlier this week. While Yoho went onto the House floor Tuesday to give the appearance that he was addressing his violent assault, he not only gave a non-apology, he lied and claimed he didn’t call her a “fucking bitch” even though it was overheard by a reporter from The Hill.
This kind of abuse cannot stand, the Hispanic Caucus said in a statement urging Yoho’s censure. “This misogynistic behavior by Rep. Yoho is tantamount to verbal assault and should never occur nor be tolerated to happen in the halls of Congress,” chair Joaquin Castro of Texas and CHC members write. “Unless we immediately and firmly condemn this behavior, we will be signaling to the rest of this country that this type of behavior is acceptable at workplaces, including Congress.”
In a speech that I believe will rank among the most powerful addresses ever made from the House floor, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez “said she intended to let the fury die down and move on, but then Yoho refused to take responsibility for his actions,” Daily Kos’ Jen Hayden wrote on Thursday.
“[I] do not need Rep. Yoho to apologize to me,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Clearly, he does not want to. Clearly, when given the opportunity, he will not. And I will not stay up late at night waiting for an apology from a man who has no remorse over calling women and using abusive language towards women. But what I do have issue with is using women, our wives and daughters, as shields and excuses for poor behavior,” she continued, calling out that he hid behind his wife and daughters during his speech.
“Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters,” she said. “I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho's youngest daughter. I am someone's daughter too. My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter. My mother got to see Mr. Yoho's disrespect on the floor of this House towards me on television. And I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter and that they did not raise me to accept abuse from men.
“Now, what I am here to say is that this harm that Mr. Yoho levied—tried to levy—against me was not just an incident directed at me, but when you do that to any woman, what Mr. Yoho did was give permission to other men to do that to his daughters,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “In using that language in front of the press, he gave permission to use that language against his wife, his daughters, women in his community, and I am here to stand up to say that is not acceptable.”
It’s not acceptable, not from an office colleague, not from a stranger on the street, and certainly not from a member of Congress, Hispanic Caucus members said in calling on Pelosi and McCarthy to call a formal vote on a resolution censuring the congressman. “We know that women of color report higher levels of bullying at the workplaces,” the members said. “The House of Representatives must condemn this behavior that was directed toward a young woman of color that happens to be a member of Congress.”