(Headline USA) “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., attacked far-left Green Party candidate Jill Stein this week for weakening the Democratic presidential ticket, demanding that Stein and other leftists pledge their fielty to the rival party, The Hill reported.
“This is a little spicy, but I have thoughts,” Ocasio–Cortez said, when asked about Stein’s Green Party candidacy in a now-removed story posted Sunday on her personal Instagram account.
Ocasio–Cortez was first recruited by the Justice Democrats to run as an outsider in order to force the Democrat establishment farther to the left. Although the scheme worked, with the party having taken a hard turn toward Marxist extremism, the former Bronx bartender appears now to be the ultimate party insider.
“If you run for years in a row, and your party has not grown, has not added city council seats, down-ballot seats and state electives, that’s bad leadership,” Ocasio–Cortez said of Stein. “And that to me is what’s upsetting.”
All Stein does is “show up every four years to speak to people who are justifiably pissed off,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “You’re not serious. To me, it does not read as authentic; it reads as predatory.”
Stein responded to Ocasio–Cortez in a video of her own on Tuesday.
“I just wanted to thank AOC/Pelosi so very much for her very authentic concern about Green power,” Stein said. “Clearly AOC is the attack dog du jour and the Democrats are running scared—and they should be.”
Stein went on to argue that Green Party had won “1,400 elections” nationwide, and blasted Democrats for using lawfare to try and keep third parties such as the Green Party off the ballot.
“So which party is authentic, and which is predatory?” Stein said.
Despite launching her political career as an avowed leftist, Ocasio–Cortez has faced backlash from the left-wing in recent months. This summer, for example, the Democratic Socialists of America withdrew its endorsement from Ocasio–Cortez over her continued support for Israel.
The group cited a panel Ocasio–Cortez participated in with leaders from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, calling it a “deep betrayal to all those who’ve risked their welfare to fight Israeli apartheid and genocide through political and direct action in recent months, and in decades past.”
