Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., went on cable news Wednesday to discuss the president’s low polling and the Democrats’ grim prospects in the midterm elections.
Unsurprisingly, she described herself and the House Progressive Caucus as completely blameless… and she lied her way out any self-reflection.
She said on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, “I can’t point to one major agenda [sic] where Progressives or this so-called ‘Left’ has sidelined the direction of the party in some dramatic fashion that can lead to this.”
MSNC host Mehdi Hasan, filling in for the retired Brian Williams, encouraged Ocasio-Cortez to defend the Progressives on air.
Hsasn asked her, in the form of a leading question, “What is your reaction when you hear some in your party, some in the media, already blaming the Left for the midterms’ defeat that seems to be coming your party’s way and for Biden’s low approval ratings?”
Ocasio-Cortez, instead of doing some self-reflection, blamed the elusive “moderate” Democrats for the president’s sagging polls.
“I can’t really point to any real substantive or serious or intellectually rigorous argument as to anything that the Progressive wing has done — aside from supporting President Biden, oftentimes more than the moderate wing of the party has — in a way that can lead to sinking poll numbers.”
She’s being disingenuous.
In reality, the House Progressive Caucus dragged the negotiations over the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden. After playing hardball, six card-carrying Progressives became the only congressional Democrats to vote against the bill, far from “supporting President Biden.”
Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, voted for the bipartisan bill. Still, she downplayed the Progressives’ tendency to slow down the Biden administration.
“The moderate end of the party has received everything that they have wanted from President Biden, including President Biden as the nominee himself. They got their president. They got their agenda,” she said. “They got all of it.”
In fact, Biden himself has bristled at being called “moderate.” In the past, he has distanced himself both from swing voters like former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and from self-described socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Biden said at a campaign stop in 2020, “I ain’t a socialist. I ain’t a plutocrat. I’m a Democrat, and I’m proud of it.”
Yet, Ocasio-Cortez neglected to address facts when blaming the “moderate” Democrats.
Then, Ocasio-Cortez addressed the future prospects of Biden’s social spending bill, which has stalled in the Senate. She faulted a single person: Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
“The issue that we have is that — Every day Sen. Manchin wakes up, he has a different demand, and he wants to start from scratch every single day,” she said.
Again, Ocasio-Cortez is lying.
Manchin clarified his demands even before meeting with Biden. Manchin wanted to cap the bill at $1.5 trillion, and he wanted to create permanent programs rather than temporary ones, according to a December report from The Washington Post.
Throughout these negotiations, Manchin either stood behind these same requests or shifted in Biden’s direction. For example, Manchin offered to go up to $1.8 trillion, according to reporting from Post earlier this month.
Ocasio-Cortez concluded by discussing her plans to assist Democrats in the midterms… and by defending her recent vacation in Florida.
“When you don’t change people’s lives, people get upset. And we can improve people’s lives. We can forgive student loan debt, and we can improve his poll numbers while we’re at it,” she said. “I can tell you that the people of Florida certainly seemed very revved up and ready to go to organize for the 2022 midterm elections, and I’d be more than happy to return to the state of Florida to really help them organize.”
Good luck with that, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez!
Watch an excerpt here —
Before blaming progressives, consider that moderates have gotten what they wanted: their president, their stand-alone infrastructure bill, and their agenda.
If we want to change the state of play, we have to really change people’s lives. We can start by relieving student debt. pic.twitter.com/U96cLBortV
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) January 27, 2022
The Horn editorial team