Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she is pleased to be proven wrong after predicting that party leaders would try to remove not only Joe Biden but also Kamala Harris from the top of the Democratic ticket.
The New York Democrat was one of the last holdouts to keep insisting Biden should remain in the running for 2024, and warned that she’d been a part of conversations where Democrats had discussed pushing out Harris as well.
‘I think that for some of the skeptics and folks that I think there were skeptics that were surprised at that,’ Ocasio-Cortez told DailyMail.com.
‘And I was happy to see the party rally behind her. I do think that I voiced those concerns because of conversations that I had seen and was privy to, in the lead up to that moment, and I’m glad to see that it was countered.’
Since Biden dropped out of the running on Sunday, Democrats have in rapid-fire succession come out behind Harris, who has only a little over 100 days to prove herself to the electorate before November 5.
But Harris appears to be off to a good start – she raised $81 million in the 24 hours after Biden dropped out and endorsed her to replace him.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she is pleased to be proven wrong after predicting that party leaders would try to remove not only Joe Biden but also Kamala Harris from the top of the Democratic ticket
The New York Democrat was one of the last holdouts to keep insisting Biden should remain in the running for 2024, and warned that she’d been a part of conversations where Democrats had discussed pushing out Harris as well
‘That actually shows that there was a major enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans,’ Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said.
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., a friend of Biden, said Harris would draw in young voters and black voters, after Biden was losing support from those demographics.
‘We have to get young people excited. She’s clearly drawing in the African American community,’ she said.
‘The people of Flint, my hometown, the enthusiasm for Harris there, the level of enthusiasm that we’re seeing I’m not, not hyperbole, this sounds like a Joe Biden comment but hundreds of new volunteers walking into our headquarters across the state of Michigan people who are suddenly really excited,’ Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., explained of what he’d seen in the one day since Biden dropped out of the running.
But in a late night screed on Instagram live last Friday, the New York Democrat said it is ‘horse s***’ that Democrats are giving anonymous quotes to journalists about how they don’t believe Biden can win the election.
‘If that’s your opinion, and if that’s what you think is best for the country, put your name on it, okay?’ she said. ‘That’s a bunch of horse s***.’
The congresswoman said that former President Trump is ‘also very old, and a racist, and a neo-Nazi.’
She called out a ‘lack of thought’ from Democratic leadership who did not want Biden to run but did not have a fool-proof alternate plan.
She warned that much of the newly anti-Biden Democratic establishment would also push out Harris.
‘I’m just going to say it. If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that Kamala, that they will support Kamala, Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken.’
‘I’m in these rooms. I see what they say in conversations, Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘They are interested in removing the whole ticket.’
‘A huge amount of donor class and a huge amount of these elites, and a huge amount of these folks in these rooms that I see that are pushing for President Biden to not be the nominee ,also are not interested in seeing the Vice President being the nominee. Will they win out on that? I don’t know.’
‘To a certain extent, I don’t care what name is on there. We are not losing. I don’t know about you, but my community does not have the option to lose,’ she went on. ‘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.’
‘I’m not here to tell you that if Joe Biden is the nominee, he’s definitely going to win because I don’t think if anybody is the nominee, we’re definitely going to win,’ Ocasio-Cortez also said on Friday.
‘There’s no safe option,’ she admitted.
‘I can’t tell you all how shameful it feels to hear all these leaks about what Democratic leaders are staying and not to have a single one of them out here confirming or denying it,’ the Minnesota Democrat and progressive ‘Squad’ member wrote on X.
‘It’s a lack of leadership and it’s making all Democrats look bad. Whatever this mess leads to will not undo the damage that has already been inflicted. May God help us all.’
President Joe Biden, sick with covid, is becoming increasingly isolated
A defiant Biden has insisted publicly that he will be the Democratic nominee and only God or a ‘medical condition’ would compel him to bow out. So far, he’s been supported by family members, first lady Jill Biden and son Hunter, in the decision to stay put.
Despite the campaign’s best efforts to do damage control, Biden appeared at times confused, rambling and irritable in a Monday evening interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. The official line remains that top Democrats didn’t pressure the president to quit.
Progressive activists were left scratching their heads as Squad House members became Biden’s last stalwart of support – even at a time when it is relatively safe to come out against him after the June 27 debate.
Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., all stood firmly behind Joe Biden remaining at the top of their ticket as now close to 20 House Democrats have urged him to step down.
‘Joe Biden is our nominee. He is not leaving this race. He is in this race and I support him,’ Ocasio-Cortez told reporters earlier this month.
Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., have made comments supporting the president.