Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has repeatedly created headaches for party leadership, and in two stunning new videos she just took aim at her colleagues again.
In one, she accused her Democrat coworkers of selling out. In another, she made an argument over some candidates’ “un-woke” word choices.
The far-left Democratic socialist leader began the first video by talking about the recent bills for gun control… and their likely defeats in the Senate.
“There are some people that should not have firearms in the United States. Maybe we should have waiting periods. Maybe we should assess what kinds of gun are up for purchase. There are so many things that we can try,” she said in a video obtained by Forbes on Saturday.
“There are several things that have been passed, but at the end of the day you have two Democratic senators that don’t believe in governance. I mean you literally have Sen. Kyrsten Sinema that says she doesn’t believe that D.C. is going to have a solution to this. Girl, what? That’s literally what we’re sent here to do.
Ocasio-Cortez appears to have taken the “D.C. solutions” remark out of context.
Last month Sinema fielded a reporter’s question about nuking the filibuster to pass a bill for gun control. “I don’t think D.C. solutions are realistic here,” the senator responded.
Sinema added, “Despite the fact that there is always heated rhetoric here in D.C., I do think there’s an opportunity for us to actually have real conversations and try and do something. I think the conversation across America is very different than it is here. People at home all across America are just, they’re scared.”
Ocasio-Cortez referred to “two Democratic senators”: presumably Sinema and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
As of Monday, Manchin has been participating in bipartisan negotiations over a possible bill, CNN’s Manu Raju reported. When speaking to CNN, Manchin endorsed concrete plans like raising the minimum age to buy a hunting rifle.
Ocasio-Cortez neglected to address Manchin directly in her rant when she accused some colleagues of money mongering and career climbing.
“There’s just far too many people that are, like, proxying their job,” she said. “Instead of thinking problem, solution, they’re thinking problem-election-this, or they’re thinking problem-money-that, problem-ambition-this. We can’t come to a solution. There is no solution. No! That’s not what we’re sent here to do. We’re sent here for problem-and-solution.”
Take a look —
SINEMA just stopped reporters outside the senate chamber and said she had something to say. This is rare.
Here’s what she said. I asked her if she was willing to set aside the filibuster. She said she didn’t believe “that DC solutions are realistic here.” pic.twitter.com/BCUQQzEX0l
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 25, 2022
Two days later, Ocasio-Cortez took aim at her Democratic colleagues once again.
In an Instagram video obtained by Mediaite, the representative gave a rather disorganized “mini-rant” about her coworkers’ fixation on the term “Latinx,” a woke term referring to Latino people… without mentioning gender, which is central to Spanish language.
She said, “I also have a mini-rant about this because there are some politicians, including Democratic politicians, that rail against the term ‘Latinx.’ And they’re like, ‘this is so bad, this is so bad for the party,’ like blah blah blah. And it’s almost like it hasn’t struck some of these folks that another person’s identity is not about your reelection prospects. This is not about you.”
With the phrase “another person’s identity,” Ocasio-Cortez was presumably referring to people who prefer the term “Latinx.”
The “woke” term is preferred by only about 2 percent of Latinos, according to a poll from last year.
Ocasio-Cortez, representing a solidly Democratic district, also questioned whether anyone has lost an election specifically for using the term “Latinx.”
She continued, “Second of all, if you think putting a little X on your campaign literature is the difference between winning and losing an election, you need to talk about health care more. You need to raise people’s wages. You need to talk about more issues that also matter to people.”
In fact, the term “Latinx” offends about 40 percent of Latino voters, according to the poll. And 30 percent of respondents described themselves as less likely to vote for a politician who used that term.
Ocasio-Cortez also addressed the term “Latine.” This term is also gender-neutral, but it’s pronounceable in Spanish.
The term “Latine” has not been subject to as much polling.
“That being said, why are more people opting to use ‘Latine’ over ‘Latinx”‘?… If you don’t want to use it, no one’s forcing you to. But, for people who enjoy figuring out language and having it meet the modern age, that’s kind of where it’s at.”
The Horn editorial team