At a time when President Joe Biden is facing existential upheaval, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has emerged as a stalwart ally of the embattled incumbent, using her platform to speak out against A series of Democratic voices who is call him to retreat from the 2024 presidential race.
As former President Donald Trump wrapped up his lengthy speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, AOC — as she’s known — took to Instagram Live to speak directly to her thousands of followers in protest of Biden’s exit.
She questioned the feasibility of replacing Biden at the top of the ticket at this late stage, warning that some Republicans would legally object to it and saying doing so could lead to “a presidential election decided by Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court,” like in 2000.
Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly stressed that she respected the views of ordinary voters who wanted to see change on the ballot and said she could not guarantee that Biden would win if he stayed in the race. But she warned that things could get more chaotic for Democrats if Biden made an extraordinary move to end his campaign. just weeks before the Democratic convention.
“If you’re 10,000 percent convinced that the candidate or the president can’t beat Donald Trump, then do what you feel is right in your conscience. But I haven’t seen an alternative scenario that I feel doesn’t put us in tremendous danger,” she said.
In a turnaround for the left-leaning Ocasio-Cortez, her comments make her one of the most vocal pro-Biden voices in the party today. While more than 10% of congressional Democrats have called for Biden to drop out of the race, few have criticized those voices and made a strong case for him to stay, with party leadership saying they would support whatever decision he makes.
While backing the president, Ocasio-Cortez and other prominent progressives have in recent days urged Biden to adopt some of their priorities for a potential second term—including expanding Social Security, limiting rent increases, removing medical debt from credit reports and impose term limits on the Supreme Court.
Many progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are largely driven by policy goals and know they have Biden’s ear. If he steps down, it’s unclear who would replace him and how that relationship would change.
But others fear a Trump presidency if the ticket remains, and there is no clear consensus on whether Vice President Kamala Harris would be a better or worse candidate, electorally or in governing the country.
“Right now, people are in existential crisis, emergency mode,” one progressive strategist said of the mood within the movement. “S—’s hitting the fan. … There’s a chaotic angle on the other side: What if the vote changes?”
Part of the reason progressives like Ocasio-Cortez are backing Biden is the “bird-in-the-hand phenomenon” — there’s a “comfort level” with Biden in the White House, the strategist said.
Ocasio-Cortez’s views are not shared across the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A day after her livestream, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., a former co-chair of the CPC, called on Biden to withdraw.
“We must face the reality that widespread public concern about your age and fitness is jeopardizing a campaign that should have been won,” Pocan said in a joint message to Biden and three other House Democrats. “These perceptions may be unfair, but they have hardened since last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change. We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do at this time is to resign as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House.”
During the Instagram Live, Ocasio-Cortez said much of the effort to push Biden out of the race after his poor debate performance came from “donors” and “elites” — who would not allow Harris to “transition easily” to become the nominee, though she did not offer an opinion on Harris — or any other alternatives.
“If you think there’s a consensus among people who want Joe Biden gone that they’re going to support Kamala — Vice President Harris — you’re wrong,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I’m in these rooms. I see what they’re saying in the conversations. Many of them are not just interested in getting rid of the president. They’re interested in getting rid of the entire ticket.”
She said the effort is being driven by wealthy donors: “When I talk to people in the room, I hear, ‘My donors are this, my donors are that.’ Those are the comments I hear from my colleagues. It’s not, ‘My voters are saying this…’ but, ‘The big donors are saying this.’”
“I don’t care what a bunch of rich people think,” she added.
The progressive strategist also said Ocasio-Cortez, by accusing donors and elites of wanting to kill the entire ticket, may be “deflecting” inevitable questions if Biden does indeed resign over whether the nomination should go to Harris or whether there should be an open primary.
Her office had no further comment beyond her lengthy remarks to followers on the platform. Biden, for his part, has repeatedly and emphatically said he is not quitting. He said he would return to the campaign trail next week after self-isolating following his Covid diagnosis.
Lisa Lint-Vander Zouwen, a 46-year-old Grand Rapids resident and mother of two school-age daughters, calls herself a “reluctant” Biden supporter. She said she wants to see him step aside and be replaced by a “strong woman” — but not without competition.
“It would be great if there was some kind of process of having three people,” she said. “I don’t know what that would look like, but some of the Democrats would get together and discuss who would be a strong candidate and why, and it wouldn’t necessarily be Vice President Harris by default.”
Ocasio-Cortez also warned followers that Biden has unique electoral strengths that other Democrats cannot expect to have.
“Joe Biden seems to be stepping on the older voters in the election, which is one of the strongest and most consistent constituencies, and really a hard constituency for Democrats to win. Those people are not Twitter users,” she said. “You can’t assume that constituency will shift to any other candidate.”
