(Headline USA) Leftists have turned on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., after she endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, accusing her of betraying the progressive cause.
Ocasio-Cortez threw her support behind Biden during a recent interview with “Pod Save America.” Asked whether she’d back Biden or one of his two Democratic primary challengers, Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ocasio-Cortez chose Biden.
“I think he’s done quite well given the limitations that we have,” the self-described Democratic socialist said. “I do think that there are ebbs and flows, as there are in any presidency. There are areas that I think were quite strong when [Biden] came right out of the gate with the American Rescue Plan, and of course the Inflation Reduction Act was a massive step in terms of our climate agenda.”
However, Ocasio-Cortez hinted that her answer might have been different if the primary field had been wider.
“I believe, given that field, yes,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
In response, Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow progressives blasted her for siding with the Democratic establishment.
“It was true for Bernie Sanders’ endorsement & its true of AOC (sic),” former Bernie Sanders campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray wrote on Twitter. “*Most* Democrats don’t want Biden to run. Bernie and AOC are tragically out of step w/ the movement & the moment.”
Endorsing Joe Biden now is a betrayal of progressive interests. It was true of Bernie Sanders’ endorsement & its true of AOC.
*Most* Democrats don’t want Biden to run. Bernie and AOC are tragically out of step w/ the movement & the moment. https://t.co/WFC5MFUkcH
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) July 7, 2023
Gray added that, “at the very least,” leftists such as Ocasio-Cortez “should be asking for commitments in exchange for their endorsement.”
“AOC once said in a normal country, she and Biden wouldn’t be in the same party. Maybe that was once true. Not anymore,” she said.
Other leftist users agreed.
“Absolute loser AOC thinks Biden has done a good job. This is why electoral politics is a dead end. When leaders like AOC signal to the world that Biden is doing well, it harms the left,” one wrote.
Self-described socialist Ransom Thomas went so far as to accuse Ocasio-Cortez of not being a true democratic socialist.
“I’d call it a betrayal but AOC and others have made it clear that they haven’t been on the side of the socialist movement for a while now, if they ever even truly were in the first place,” Thomas wrote.
