Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made a final plea for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ahead of Super Tuesday, telling her 6.4 million followers on social media that a “progressive, mass-movement” is the only thing that can defeat President Trump — a remark that could be seen as a response to the flurry of endorsements Joe Biden (D) has secured in the last 24 hours.
In the wake of high-profile backing for the former vice president, Ocasio-Cortez made a pitch of her own for Sanders, contending it will take a “progressive, mass-movement politics that expands the electorate and fights for working-class & marginalized people” to defeat Trump.
“Turning back the clock may sound appealing to some, but we must recognize how we got here in the first place,” she said, painting a dire image of the state of America, harping on “mountains of student debt” and “friends working multiple jobs just to afford rent.”
“I understand disaffected voters because I once was one,” she said.
“What do they call doing the same thing over and over again, & expecting different results?” she asked, warning that if Democrats “do not run a strong, progressive candidate that directly addresses the core crises Americans face” they are taking a “major risk.”
“The time is now. Vote @BernieSanders,” she concluded:
I understand disaffected voters because I once was one.
As a waitress, I’d watch pundits on TV talk about how we didn’t need to improve the ACA much when almost no one I knew could afford insurance. Or they’d talk about how great the economy was when everyone I knew struggled./2
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 3, 2020
There will always be people who make the case against transformative change.
But today our generation’s prospects are worse off than our parents’. Today people are dying bc they can’t afford insulin. Today the for-profit caging of people is normal.
I, for one, choose change.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 3, 2020
What do they call doing the same thing over and over again,& expecting different results?
If we do not run a strong, progressive candidate that directly addresses the core crises Americans face, we take a major risk.
The time is now.
Vote @BernieSanders.pic.twitter.com/rzaKXx0Tk6— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 3, 2020
Pete Buttigieg (D) dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) dropped out on Monday. Both ultimately endorsed their former competitor, ex-Vice President Biden. Beto O’Rourke (D), another former candidate, appeared alongside Klobuchar at a Biden rally in Dallas, Texas, on Monday and threw his support behind Biden as well.
Former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) endorsed Biden, citing his “strength of character and deep experience stand in the starkest contrast to Trump’s amorality, corruption and utter incompetence,” as did former Obama national security adviser and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice:
I worked very closely with @JoeBiden for 8 years. He is smart, strategic and more experienced than any candidate in the field. No one is better prepared and more trusted by our allies to repair the incalculable damage Trump has done to our int'l standing and national security.
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) March 2, 2020
The freshman lawmaker’s plea for Sanders follows rumors of internal strife between her team and Sanders’ campaign. Vanity Fair reported last month that concern was bubbling over within the Sanders campaign over Ocasio-Cortez’s rhetoric and the fear that she will alienate voters in Rust Belt states.
As Breitbart News reported:
Ocasio-Cortez went on the campaign trail for her candidate in Iowa during the Senate impeachment trial, which kept Sanders locked down in the nation’s capital, compromising his ability to campaign in the Hawkeye State ahead of its caucuses. According to Vanity Fair, Ocasio-Cortez’s performance “stoked some tensions between herself and the Sanders campaign” and caused some to fear that her “off script” performance could jeopardize Sanders’ chances of resonating with voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan — three states President Trump narrowly won in 2016.
Sanders’s campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, reportedly sent a message to the New York lawmaker’s campaign manager critiquing Ocasio-Cortez’s performance, “according to a source familiar with the exchange.” Shakir was reportedly bothered that Ocasio-Cortez did not mention Sanders’ name during the rally at the University of Iowa last month. Her rhetoric on breaking apart U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and “tipping people off” on their presence in order to “keep people safe” also raised eyebrows.
The Sanders campaign ultimately said Ocasio-Cortez “was not off message and how she talks about these issues is how Senator Sanders talks about these issues,” and she has continued to stump for the socialist senator.
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