by Frank Holmes, reporter
The Democratic primaries are in full swing — and the radical socialist wing of the party led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has declared war on half of its own party.
The Squad didn’t just throw their chips in with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-V.T, they decided to try to take the scalps of two so-called “centrist” Democrats running for president… and all their followers.
Political campaigns are always tense, but this year it looks like the fireworks may spill over into full-blown civil war.
AOC and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-M.N., were the first to endorse Bernie Sanders two weeks ago—and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-M.I., followed this weekend.
Now, they’ve decided to step up their strategy of attacking any non-socialist in the Democratic Party, which began with their assault on ultra-leftist Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
They’re using negative campaigning against the two leading candidates who aren’t on board with totally reorienting the economy: Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg.
Cortez attacked Biden the very first day of his presidential campaign, but Omar just sank her claws into Biden and the mayor in a podcast recorded for “The Intercept.”
She said their nomination would be “tragic” for the Democratic Party… because they’re too centrist!
The interviewer asked Omar, “If one of them (Biden or Mayor Pete) is the candidate for your party, who would you rather it be?”
“So you’re saying if something tragic happened and they ended up being the nominee?” she said sarcastically.
But the interviewer insisted she pick one of those two as the Democrats’ 2020 presidential candidate.
“I don’t know. It’s hard. ‘None’ comes to my head,” she said.
The Squad laid down a marker: Non-socialist candidates, even raving liberals like Pete Buttigieg, aren’t acceptable to them.
AOC said she would only consider two candidates months ago, before the socialist from Queens endorsed the socialist born in Brooklyn.
She said she wanted the Democrats’ presidential candidate “that has a coherent worldview and logic from which all these policy proposals are coming forward, I think Sen. Sanders has that. I also think Sen. Warren has that.”
Even Biden and Buttigieg’s far-Left positions—they want to raise taxes, grab citizens’ guns, and open U.S. borders and tax
payers’ wallets to every illegal immigrant in the world—aren’t enough for AOC and her followers.
A growing part of the Democratic Party base say Biden is a non-starter, too.
Biden “is a beloved figure among the pundit class, as well as among many of the old-line money people who currently are trembling at new forces that they do not understand,” according to a piece in “Esquire” magazine.
“A Joe Biden campaign in 2020 would be the most divisive thing that could happen to a Democratic primary field,” it concluded.
Socialist freshmen in the House of Representatives see Sanders’ campaign as a chance to remake the entire party in their image—and establish themselves as its unquestioned leaders.
“We deserve Bernie Sanders!” Tlaib said in a speech in the battleground state of Michigan.
And just last week, Sanders’ campaign released a 30-second digital spot in Iowa featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s support...so he clearly sees her backing as an asset with his base.
That’s bad news for Elizabeth Warren, who saw an opening even before Sanders’ heart attack.
Even now, one Squad member — Ayanna Presley from Warren’s home delegation in Massachusetts — has been sitting on the fence.
So, Warren and Sanders have been battling to show they are the most left-wing candidate in the race.
Warren asked for a “wealth tax” that would scoop up $2.75 trillion of income — so Sanders rolled out his version, that would confiscate $4.35 trillion of private money.
Politico reports the two are in a battle of “one-upmanship” to win over people like AOC.
But their political game could cost them the presidency next November — because The Squad doesn’t represent most Americans.
While three out of four Democratic voters say America would be “better off” if we were more socialist, a Public Opinion Strategies poll found that a majority of American voters disagree.
That includes core groups the Democrats rely on in 2020 — like swing state voters and liberals living in comfy, well-to-do suburbs.
Omar’s civil war against Biden and Buttigieg may lead to a “tragic” result for her party in the 2020 elections: A massive landslide re-election for President Donald Trump.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”