Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told CNN it appears Democrats are “sitting on their hands” when it comes to impeachment, reflecting the unease from an outspoken bloc of members who want Democrats to take a tougher stance against President Trump.
When asked if she was satisfied with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s approach and opposition to beginning the impeachment process, Ocasio-Cortez said: “Personally, I am not.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), “whose mastery of social media has helped drive the national conversation and shed light on the inner workings of congressional power, has given up on the most popular social network in the world,” the Washington Post reports.
The freshman lawmaker says she stopped using her Facebook account and was scaling back on all social media, which she described as a “public health risk” because it can lead to “increased isolation, depression, anxiety, addiction, escapism.”
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) is warning his colleagues that if they mess with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, they could be inviting trouble, McClatchy reports.
Said Comer: “A lot of Republicans are making a mistake picking on her.”
He said the Bronx congresswoman is smart, has a “movement of millennials” and that Republicans should watch closely before tangling with her.
Media Matters reports that in 42 days, from February 25 through April 7, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was mentioned on Fox News and Fox Business 3,181 times.
Her name was mentioned on the network at least once every single day for those six weeks.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 72% of Americans say they know enough about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to form an opinion of her — a swift rise in name ID for a relatively new figure on the national scene.
Among all Americans, 23% have a positive opinion of her, while 34% have a negative one.
The intensity of feelings toward the New York congresswoman is stronger on the political right than on the left: 46% of Democrats have a positive opinion of her, while 64% of Republicans have a negative one.
“You want to tell people that their concern and their desire for clean air and clean water is elitist? Tell that to the kids in the south Bronx which are suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Tell that to the families in Flint.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), delivering an impassioned defense of the Green New Deal after a GOP congressman attacked the resolution as an elitist plan created by “rich liberals from New York of California.”
A new Gallup poll finds that while half of U.S. adults were unfamiliar with or had no opinion of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in September “after her seismic primary win over the summer, that figure has shrunk to 29% today.”
“But the increased visibility has not improved her overall standing with Americans. Whereas the public had mixed views of Ocasio-Cortez in September, her image now tilts slightly negative, with 31% viewing her favorably and 41% unfavorably.”
“I am thinking that probably the attention she is getting is a convenient partnership between the media, who kind of likes celebrities, and the Republicans, who want a target.”
— Former Rep. Dick Gephrdt (D-MO), quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)’s chief of staff helped establish two political action committees that paid a corporation he ran more than $1 million in 2016 and 2017,” the Washington Post reports.
“Brand New Congress LLC, the corporation owned by Saikat Chakrabarti, was also paid $18,880 for strategic consulting by Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional campaign in 2017, records show. The following year, he worked as a volunteer to manage her campaign, according to his LinkedIn profile.”
“The arrangement, first reported by conservative outlets, left hidden who ultimately profited from the payments — a sharp juxtaposition with Ocasio-Cortez’s calls for transparency in politics. She has called dark money ‘the enemy to democracy.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that she would defer the question of whether the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against President Trump to party leadership, The Hill reports.
Said Ocasio-Cortez: “I’ve always been very clear that I’m supportive and how I would vote in terms of impeachment. I understand that leadership may want to build a stronger case and subpoena more records or figure out what’s happening, perhaps in the Mueller investigation.”
It’s unclear whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) “actually still lives in the Parkchester neighborhood that has been so closely tied to her rise,” the New York Post reports.
“Her apartment’s next-door neighbor said she had never seen Ocasio-Cortez. Another neighbor, who has lived down the hall from the congresswoman’s apartment for the last 40 years, said he’d never seen her or her boyfriend, Riley Roberts, who has claimed the address as his own since last spring.”
AOC responds: “I still live in my hood and literally instagrammed from my apartment tonight. A man was just arrested last week with a stockpile of guns specifically trying to kill me & others, so yeah I’m not gonna disclose my personal address or tell people when I move. Sorry!”
Washington Post: “One of the networks’ favorite subjects is not a candidate at all but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who is often identified by her initials, AOC. She’s received a greater density of mentions on Fox News than any likely/possible 2020 candidate besides Warren.”
“Her popularity on Fox is in part, like Sanders, a function of the politics she espouses. She’s the face of a brand of politics with which many on Fox News disagree strongly — and she’s a politician who pushes back forcefully against her critics on social media. (Republicans don’t need to worry about her running in 2020 — or 2024, for that matter. She won’t be old enough.)”
James Hohmann: “President Trump will struggle to get reelected if the 2020 campaign is purely a referendum on his own performance, but elections typically become choices between two flawed candidates and their visions.”
“Republicans are banking on this, and Trump is doing everything possible – more than a year before we learn the identity of the presumptive Democratic nominee – to paint an apocalyptic picture of what would happen if he loses.”
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) won’t be on the ballot next year anywhere but the Bronx and Queens, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to GOP messaging. Republicans have gleefully elevated her into the avatar of the opposition, and her botched rollout of the Green New Deal resolution has given them fodder for over-the-top attacks that foreshadow how the next 21 months will likely play out.”
The Hill: “In addition to the vote after next week’s recess on the star freshman’s climate change plan, they say the Senate could find itself considering Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a 70 percent marginal tax rate on the nation’s highest income earners, providing ‘Medicare for all’ and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
“I think she’s doing great. I think she’s actually doing a great job. I’m very proud that she was able to hold the caucus together during the longest shutdown in American history. I think she got concessions from the president. I think she’s showing people who’s boss and I very much understand that she’s in an extraordinarily difficult position.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in an interview with NPR, on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ana Maria Archila, the woman who had a widely seen confrontation with former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) last year over his support for then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, on Tuesday will attend the State of the Union address as a guest of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), The Hill reports.
Billionaire former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told CNBC that he can’t run for president as a Democrat because he doesn’t like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) proposal to slap a 70-percent marginal tax rate on income above $10 million.
Said Schultz: “I respect the Democratic Party. I no longer feel affiliated because I don’t know their views represent the majority of Americans. I don’t think we want a 70 percent income tax in America.”
He added: “If I ran as a Democrat, I would have to say things that I know in my heart I do not believe, and I would have to be disingenuous.”
Matt Taibbi: “One of the first things you learn covering American politicians is that they’re not terribly bright.”
“The notion that Hill denizens are brilliant 4-D chess players is pure myth, the product of too many press hagiographies of the Game Change variety and too many Hollywood fantasies like House of Cards and West Wing.”
“The average American politician would lose at checkers to a zoo gorilla. They’re usually in office for one reason: someone with money sent them there, often to vote yes on a key appropriation bill or two. On the other 364 days of the year, their job is to shut their yaps and approximate gravitas anytime they’re in range of C-SPAN cameras…”
“We’ve seen this a lot in recent weeks with the ongoing freakout over newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Lest anyone think any of the above applies to ‘AOC,’ who’s also had a lot to say since arriving in Washington, remember: she won in spite of the party and big donors, not because of them.”
A new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll finds that 74% of Democrats (and people who lean Dem) would consider voting for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) if she were old enough to run for president.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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