Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has issued a dire warning to her party about the chaos that could ensue if they succeed in pushing President Joe Biden off the ticket. And she criticized Democrats whoāve given off-the-record quotes that suggest the party has resigned itself to a second Trump term.
InĀ an Instagram Live video on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez warned liberals that a brokered convention could lead to chaos, in part because she says some of the Democratic āelitesā who want Biden outĀ alsoĀ donāt want Vice PresidentĀ Kamala HarrisĀ as the nominee in his place.
āIf you think that is going to be an easy transition, Iām here to tell you that a huge amount of the donor class and these elites who are pushing for the president not to be the nominee also do not want to see the VP be the nominee,ā she said.
Ocasio-Cortez claimed none of the people sheās spoken with who are calling onĀ Biden to drop outĀ ā including lawmakers and legal experts ā have articulated a plan to swap out the nominee without minimizing the serious legal and procedural challenges that are likely to ensue.
Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted the racial, ethnic and class divisions that appear to have formed between the majority of thoseĀ pining to blow up the ticketĀ ā led mostly by white Democrats and media pundits ā and those elected officials who feel they and their constituents have too much at stake to upend the process at this point and so are willing to do the work to re-elect Biden-Harris. She alluded to this cultural divide in her video when she spoke out against anonymous sources expressing a sense of fatalism on behalf of Democrats about what might happen if Biden remains on the ticket:
What I will say is what upsets me is [Democrats] saying we will lose. For me, to a certain extent, I donāt care what name is on there. We are not losing. I donāt know about you, but my community does not have the option to lose. My community does not have the luxury of accepting loss in July of an election year. My people are the first ones deported. Theyāre the first ones put in Rikers. Theyāre the first ones whose families are killed by war.
You realize that the UK and France are entirely different countries with an entirely different system of government and voting, right? What the hell?
Sure, the time to make that argument was a year ago. Now, itās just fucking up the Democrats. Thatās the only reason this is even a thing.
When you look at the history across the world where you have a wounded weak incumbent and a conservative firebrand, who usually wins the election? Do you really think weāre so much different?
At my job, when a company says āweāre just too differentā we challenge that and ask āin what way?ā The majority of the time, itās just that company is too rigid to change.
To bring it back to politics, we have a convention for a reason. Itās only up until recent history where the convention is more of a rubber stamp rather than a true conversation about the direction of the party.
Would you have supported the idea a year ago? I wouldnāt, and I doubt you would have either.
This isnāt a company that can just change.