Groupthink or bust: House Democrats want to look united, delete tweets attacking each other

US House Democrats’ progressive and establishment wings have pledged not to let their political convictions get in the way of attacking President Donald Trump, uniting in a “collective de-escalation” to squelch intraparty drama.

Seeing Trump unfazed - and even boosted - by the 'racist tweet' scandal, representatives from the party’s progressive and establishment wings officially embraced their “shared mission” with a joint statement on Thursday affirming their “dedication to making life better for everyday Americans.” The leaders of the Democratic Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, New Democrat Coalition, and Blue Dog Coalition signed the truce on Thursday.

“House Democrats are a diverse, robust, and passionate family,” the statement declares, acknowledging that while “at times there may be different perspectives on the way forward, that is a hallmark of the legislative process.” Their “unity of purpose,” however, remains paramount, they said.

Attempting to bring reality in line with this new united front presentation, members of both camps have deleted inflammatory tweets they had aimed at each other. A spokesman for progressive Rep. Mark Pocan (Wisconsin) confirmed he had deleted a tweet attacking the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus for its support of the Republican-controlled Senate’s border security bill that called it the “Child Abuse Caucus.” And the centrist House Democratic Caucus memory-holed a tweet tearing into Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff for “explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color” after he criticized a Kansas congresswoman’s support of the bill.

Tensions have particularly swelled around Ocasio-Cortez and three other freshman progressive congresswomen, who recently denounced the party’s leadership for caving in to Senate leadership. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed back at their preferred medium of delivery, mocking the irrelevance of their “Twitter world” and insisting they had “no following” in Washington, where it really counted. AOC's bitter response was still on Twitter at the time of writing – pledge to unite or no.

© Twitter / @AOC

But even establishment Democrats were lately forced to reluctantly circle the wagons around Ocasio-Cortez and the 'Squad' when President Donald Trump jumped into the fray, telling the quartet to “go back” to where they came from if they hated America (and, for some reason, Israel) so much. Democrats unanimously condemned the tweets as racist in a dramatic floor vote – appearing to reluctantly embrace the young "radicals" rather than fall divided under the Bad Orange Man's attacks.

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