Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Warns Dems About Dangers of Pushing President Biden Off the Ballot
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is urging fellow Democratic leaders and commentators to rethink their efforts to push President Joe Biden aside as the presidential nominee. The lawmaker — often referred to as AOC — shared her thoughts on the forthcoming election via an Instagram Live session on Thursday, explaining to her followers for nearly an hour why counting Biden out could have dangerous consequences in November.
During her video address, AOC acknowledged that she doesn’t “know what’s going to happen” but wanted to express what she “sees in the moment” to help people better conceptualize what asking Biden to step down could result in. Ocasio-Cortez did not deny growing concerns from Democratic leaders and voters about the 81-year-old president’s age and capacity to win a second term, but said that people should “understand the reality and the gravity of what these people are proposing.”
While chatter on social media has now pivoted — whether jokingly or not — to backing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee if Biden were to step down, AOC said that “the donor class” and “elites” who are the most vocal about Biden needing to give up the ballot, “also do not want to see the VP be the nominee.”
“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Ocasio-Cortez continued.
She went on to say that having an “open convention” for selecting a new Democratic nominee would be “crazy,” adding that she has “not seen an alternative scenario that I feel will not set us up for enormous peril.” Ocasio-Cortez also mentioned Biden’s ability to secure votes from older Democratic voters — something she is afraid will be lost if he were to step down.
AOC’s video came the same day that former president Donald Trump accepted the GOP nomination for the third time at the Republican National Convention — just days after he was shot at in an assassination attempt during one of his rallies. Ocasio-Cortez expressed her disappointment in other Democratic party leaders and donors who have prematurely accepted defeat in the election due to their mistrust in Biden’s ability to secure a win.
“We are not losing. I don’t know about you, but my community does not have the option to lose,” Ocasio-Cortez said, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens in New York City, which is made up of a majority of people of color. “My community does not have the luxury of accepting loss in July of an election year. My people are the first ones deported. They’re the first ones put in Rikers. They’re the first ones whose families are killed by war.”
Top Democrats including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, (D-NY) were all named in leaked reports that they have individually urged President Biden not to run in this election. A report from The Washington Post also alleged that former President Barack Obama was having continued discussions with Biden about running for a second term, reinforcing the narrative that Democrats once-fervent support of Biden is now wavering. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) shared how “shameful” the leaks are in a post on X, writing that the “lack of leadership” is “making all Democrats look bad.”
