Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be joining the hugely influential House Oversight Committee and next month will have the chance to quiz President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, about his relationship with the President, according to the Daily Mail.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is just 29 years old, formally joined the Committee yesterday. She is not the only freshman Congressman to join its ranks either. Fellow Democrat Congressional freshmen Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts and Ro Khanna from California have also been appointed.
All four have been vociferous critics of President Trump and his administration and as members of this Committee, they will have a major public platform to question senior Trump officials for at least the next two years.
Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues won’t have to wait long for their first opportunity. The Committee’s next major hearing is currently scheduled to take place on February 7 and among those down to testify are President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi confirmed the new House Oversight Committee appointments yesterday along with various others. She said, “We are thrilled that these outstanding Members will join these critical committees, where their fresh vision and powerful voices will be critical as Democrats deliver our ambitious agenda For The People”.
Some have questioned the appropriateness of a few of the new appointees given comments they have made in the past. Tlaib once made a passionate speech to Congress in which she said of President Trump that she wanted to “impeach the motherf***er”. However, the senior Democrat on the Committee has defended their appointments.
The House Oversight Committee is currently led by Democrat Congressman Elijah E. Cummings from Maryland and Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Commenting on the new Democrats joining the Committee, Cummings told Politico, “If I based the choices going on the committee based on what people said or their reputations or whatever, I probably wouldn’t have a committee. I am excited — there were a lot of people that wanted to come on our committee.
Ocasio-Cortez confirmed her new position last night by retweeting a post about her new role. The New York Times White House correspondent Shane Goldman wrote, “Confirmed: @AOC wins a spot on the high-profile House Oversight committee, giving her a potentially huge platform to interrogate Trump administration officials in next two years”.
The House Oversight Committee is not the only one which Ocasio-Cortez will be sitting on. She has also been appointed to the House Financial Services Committee which has oversight of banks and the financial services sector.
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