Nancy Pelosi really doesn’t like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it shows every single time the former is asked about the latter. Yesterday, that happened again during an interview with 60 Minutes, and while most of it was the typical slobber-fest you’d expect from a compliant media, Lesley Stahl did manage to ask a few questions that made Pelosi squirm.

One of those was challenging the Speaker on why she’s not “grooming” more younger leadership, citing AOC’s complaints about the matter.

Pelosi gets pretty chippy in response.

Nancy Pelosi was not pleased when Lesley Stahl brought up AOC 😅
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— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 11, 2021

Pelosi quips that Stahl should go “ask” AOC if she wants to know what she’s talking about while firmly asserting that there are many other members of the House who do great work but aren’t talked about by the press. That’s a fair point. AOC is one of the least impressive members of the chamber, constantly accomplishing nothing but raising her own profile. It must be frustrating for Pelosi to always have to talk about such an inconsequential member because the media are obsessed with her physical appearance and have parlayed that into giving her political influence.

Yet, politics does ultimately come down to political influence. That means a politician who doesn’t actually do anything can hold great power over the rest of their party. AOC may not be the smartest tool in the shed, but she has a group of people around her who have expertly built up her brand and are now taking advantage of it. Pelosi had a chance to put AOC in her place early on. Instead, Pelosi stroked the young member’s ego, appeared on magazine covers with her, and insisted she was the future. That can’t all be put back in the bottle now.

AOC is the future of the Democrat party, not the whatever “moderate” members Pelosi wants to try to prop up. Congrats?

(Please follow me on Twitter to fight the purge and keep our reach…@bonchieredstate)