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Ayanna Pressley calls out Kellyanne Conway for Democratic ‘catfight’ comment

By Peter Bailey-Wells Globe Staff,July 9, 2019, 11:00 p.m.
Representative Ayanna Pressley at a protest outside the Clint, Texas, Border Patrol Facility on July 1.
Representative Ayanna Pressley at a protest outside the Clint, Texas, Border Patrol Facility on July 1.(Christ Chavez/Getty Images)

Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts has been caught up in an intraparty dispute with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a border funding vote, but Tuesday she turned her attention outward to White House adviser Kellyanne Conway.

The Trump administration official had referred to the conflict between Pelosi and the congressional “Squad” of Pressley and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, as a “major ‘meow moment,’ ” and repeated that remark in a tweet Tuesday, suggesting the Democrats were involved in a “catfight.”

That rubbed Pressley the wrong way.

The four congressional newcomers were the only Democrats to vote “no” to a border funding bill that passed in the House at the end of June — they said they couldn’t “in good conscience” support a bill that sent funds to Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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Pressley, along with Ocasio-Cortez, Joe Kennedy III, and a larger group of representatives, visited migrant detention camps in Texas at the beginning of the month and slammed the conditions of the facilities.

Conway has accused Democrats of using dead migrant children as “political pawns” and without basis, referred to Ocasio-Cortez as a “liar” for saying that detained migrants were told to drink from toilets.

Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib both echoed Pressley’s retort to Conway, sending tweets of support for their peer.

Peter Bailey-Wells can be reached at peter.bailey-wells@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @pbaileywells.