In the early hours of Friday morning, shortly after former President Donald Trump delivered the longest presidential nomination speech in American history, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram Live.
The New York congresswoman, one of the most influential progressive voices in the party, has remained supportive of Biden amid the intra-party squabble over his candidacy in the wake of a disastrous June debate.
Most of the Ocasio-Cortez’s nearly hour-long Live session focused on the risks of forcing Biden to step aside, including potential legal challenges from Republicans and ballot access deadlines in various states. “I have not seen a scenario, an alternative scenario, that I feel does not set us up for enormous peril,” she said.
The congresswoman said that she did not favor the “open convention” scenario preferred by some Democrats, suggesting she’d rather see Vice President Kamala Harris be the nominee if Biden were to drop out.
“If you’re falling out of a coconut tree, God bless you,” she said. “If you’re riding with the President, God bless. I’m not an open-convention person. I think that is crazy.”
She went as far as to suggest that many of her fellow Democrats aren’t ready to rally around Harris, pointing to conversations she says she’s observed behind closed doors.
“I’m just going to say it: If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave… that they will support Kamala, Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” she says. “They are interested in removing the whole ticket.”
Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged that her colleagues may have valid concerns about Biden. And she repeatedly stressed that she may be proven wrong in her decision to stand by him.
“Maybe I’m being too risk-averse. Maybe I’m not seeing what other people are seeing. I leave space for that,” she said. “And like, whatever. Like, maybe I’m taking a big L.”
The congresswoman’s criticism was most fiery, however, when she discussed the way that some of her Democratic colleagues have provided anonymous quotes to the press expressing skepticism about Biden.
“That’s bullshit. If you have an opinion, say it with your chest and say it in public,” she said. “That’s a bunch of horseshit.”
And she accused some of her colleagues of listening more to donors than voters — though recent polling has shown that nearly two-thirds of rank-and-file Democrats would like to see Biden drop out.
“The mechanisms by which this decision is being made is concerning me,” she said. “When I’m talking to folks in rooms, I hear, ‘My donor this, my donor that.’ Those are the inputs that I am hearing reflected by my colleagues, it’s not, ‘My voters this, my voters that.’”
Since taking a firm stance behind Biden, Ocasio-Cortez has faced blistering criticism online from fellow progressives as well, with some describing her as a “sellout.”
“And you know, like, oh man, like, you’re a neolib, sellout careerist,” she said at one point. “I mean, if I were here to sell out, I’d be making — there are much more profitable, peaceful ways, I assure you.”
The congresswoman’s missive comes at a time of deep peril for Biden, with top Democratic congressional leaders appearing to have lost confidence in the president’s reelection campaign — and reportedly telling him so directly.
Recent reporting has suggested that Biden has become more receptive to the idea of stepping aside and could do so in the coming days, though his campaign continues to deny it. Currently, Biden is at home in Delaware, recovering from COVID.
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