Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made clear to the New York Times that she intended to support Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, but said his current overtures to progressives must go further.
Said Ocasio-Cortez: “The whole process of coming together should be uncomfortable for everyone involved — that’s how you know it’s working. And if Biden is only doing things he’s comfortable with, then it’s not enough.”
She also said the Biden campaign has not yet reached out to her.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) defended her decision not to pay dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, saying she would instead seek to funnel money directly to Democrats in tough races, The Hill reports.
“Less than two weeks after being sworn in last year, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a young progressive star fresh off an upset of one of the top Democratic leaders in the House, put her fellow Democrats on notice that she would soon be coming for them, too,” the New York Times reports.
“Appearing in a promotional video for Justice Democrats, the insurgent liberal group dedicated to unseating entrenched Democratic lawmakers that helped sweep Ms. Ocasio-Cortez to power, the Bronx firebrand urged her supporters to recruit candidates to run against her new colleagues. She was flanked by the group’s three co-founders, two of whom had just taken top jobs in her office. There were even whispers that she might try to oust Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a rising star regarded by many Democrats as a future speaker of the House.”
“But after nearly nine months, with her eyes now wide open to the downsides of her revolutionary reputation and social media fame, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has tempered her brash, institution-be-damned style with something different: a careful political calculus that adheres more closely to the unwritten rules of Washington she once disdained.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) plans on Tuesday to announce her endorsement of Marie Newman (D), a progressive candidate seeking to oust Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), a conservative-leaning Illinois Democrat, marking her first move of the 2020 campaign cycle to back a primary challenger to an incumbent, the New York Times reports.
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plan to meet to discuss their icy relationship, a development that comes after the House voted to condemn remarks by President Trump about the freshman Democratic congresswoman and her three closest allies as racist,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mrs. Pelosi and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez haven’t had a conversation in months, according to a Democratic aide.”
President Trump compared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Eva Perón in a new book, American Carnage, saying that though he first saw the New York congresswoman “ranting and raving like a lunatic on a street corner” and thinks “she knows nothing”, she has “a certain talent,” The Guardian reports.
Said Trump: “That’s Evita.”
“Perón, known popularly as Evita, was an actor married to Argentinian president Juan Perón who rose to fame as a champion of working-class and female voters before dying of cancer in 1952, aged 33.”
Politico: “Ocasio-Cortez this week met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reshape a contentious spending package for the southern border. And while the New York Democrat ultimately opposed the bill on the floor Tuesday, she declined to mobilize her army of social media followers against it or rile up the progressive base in a bid to tank it.”
“The latest episode over the border bill underscores Ocasio-Cortez’s approach to Congress six months into her hotly anticipated turn in Washington. The progressive star has indeed begun to exert power — but subtly and not the way most people expected. Despite many predictions to the contrary, she hasn’t opted to torment leadership as the conservative Freedom Caucus once did to GOP leaders. Instead, she’s working with party elders.”
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!”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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