New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not make her fellow progressives happy with her latest political endorsement.
The 33-year-old was asked during the liberal “Pod Save America” broadcast by host Jon Favreau if she planned to endorse President Joe Biden’s re-election over his two challengers, Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr., the New York Post reported.
“I think he’s done quite well given the limitations that we have,” the Democratic socialist said on the podcast Thursday, noting that “given that field” of currently declared candidates, she would back Biden.
“I do think that there are ebbs and flows, as there are in any presidency,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “There are areas that I think were quite strong when [Biden] came right out of the gate with the American Rescue Plan, and of course, the Inflation Reduction Act was a massive step in terms of our climate agenda.”
She also said that “there are also areas that I think could have gone better” in his presidency thus far. However, she would go on to blame hiccups and problems on “major structural issues” that “start with the [Democrat-controlled] United States Senate.”
The Post noted: “The comments came as a shock to leftists on Twitter who said they felt betrayed by AOC, a prior diehard Bernie Sanders supporter and one of the most liberal members of Congress. Former Sanders campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray said that the Squad leader endorsing Joe Biden now is a betrayal of progressive interests.”
“It was true for Bernie Sanders’ endorsement & its true of AOC (sic),” Gray noted on Twitter. “*Most* Democrats don’t want Biden to run. Bernie and AOC are tragically out of step w/ the movement & the moment.”
“AOC once said in a normal country, she and Biden wouldn’t be in the same party. Maybe that was once true. Not anymore,” she went on to say.
Gray also argued that “at the very least,” far-left lawmakers “should be asking for commitments in exchange for their endorsement.”
“Even better, they should be using the Marianne/RFK campaigns to highlight the failures of Biden & the Dems on Ukraine, healthcare, & more,” she said.
Her remarks appeared to generate agreement among others within the Democratic Party.
“The Squad are careerist … more interested in securing their congressional sinecures for life, rather than taking on the establishment they were elected to fight,” wrote a Twitter user. “Biden is bad news. He’s been an absolute disaster for the US.”
“I hope [AOC] got a very juicy payoff,” another Twitter user wrote.
“It can’t be that surprising to learn your bartender works for tips,” wrote another, in an apparent reference to AOC’s prior work in restaurants.
Another user, called Neoliberal Tears, wrote, per the Daily Mail: “The Left isn’t nearly as nasty to AOC as it needs to be. Endorsing a war criminal the day he sent more cluster bombs to a war zone needs to make it really clear she’s a psychopath, as well as anyone who defends her.”
“Absolute loser AOC thinks Biden has done a good job,” wrote another user. “This is why electoral politics is a dead end. When leaders like AOC signal to the world that Biden is doing well, it harms the left.”
But individuals criticized Gray for raising doubts about the left’s early endorsement of Biden. They contended that failing to endorse the incumbent is tantamount to supporting former President Donald Trump, 77, who has consistently maintained a lead in the polls over his Republican rivals, The Post noted further.
“It may be a ‘betrayal of progressive interests,’ but right now that doesn’t matter. Defeating Trumpism is the only thing that matters,” anti-Trumper and one-term GOP lawmaker Joe Walsh said on Twitter. “Right now, defending democracy is way, way more important than your progressive interests or my conservative interests.”