This Isn’t How You Apologize for Calling a Congresswoman a “Fucking Bitch”

Real contrition doesn’t usually involve obscure denial and heavy use of the passive voice.

Bill Clark/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

For more than two years, white Republican men have targeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y), who at 30, is the youngest woman to serve Congress, with a steady stream of racist and sexist attacks. 

So while abhorrent, it wasn’t exactly surprising to hear that another white Republican man with a track record of arguing that lynching is not a hate crime had harassed Ocasio-Cortez outside the Capitol building on Tuesday and allegedly called her a “fucking bitch.” Rep. Ted Yoho quickly claimed that he had merely muttered “bullshit” in reference to Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive politics. But not even his own Republican colleagues appeared to be convinced by that denial.

“We think everyone should show respect to one another,” House minority leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who in the past has defended President Trump’s “send her back” chants against Democratic congresswomen of color, including Ocasio-Cortez, told reporters as calls for Yoho to apologize mounted on social media and throughout Congress. 

Leave it to Yoho himself to further erase the remote plausibility that came with his initial “bullshit” account.

“The offensive name-calling words attributed to me by the press were never spoken to my colleagues,” he said Wednesday in a speech on the House floor, “and if they were construed that way, I apologize for their misunderstanding.” Yoho ended his remarks, which never referred to Ocasio-Cortez by name, by refusing to “apologize for my passion or for loving my God, my family, and my country.” 

It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on here. One stab at an explanation could see Yoho attempting to thread the needle between calling Ocasio-Cortex a “fucking bitch” to her face and mumbling the sexist slur as he slunk away from the encounter. But we all know that meaningful contrition doesn’t usually rely on obscure denial and the heavy use of the passive voice.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate