Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden seems not yet to have won over the full support of the progressive wing of his party.
While Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden, two of his highest-profile supporters have signaled wariness to Biden.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she wants to see a “gesture” from Biden that he understands progressive issues are important to people. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has thus far withheld her endorsement from Biden.
In an interview with Politico’s Playbook on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez was asked if she would endorse Biden. She said, “We’ll see, we’re having conversations with Biden’s team and trying to figure out what some of these policy conversations are looking like.”
She continued, “I would love to see the vice president clarify and deepen his policy stances on certain issues, but aside from that, I think it’s incredibly important that we support the Democratic nominee in November.”
Watch the video below:
.@RepAOC @AOC says to @JakeSherman & @apalmerdc on @JoeBiden: "I would love to see the vice president clarify and deepen his policy stances on certain issues, but aside from that, I think it's incredibly important that we support the Democratic nominee in November." pic.twitter.com/z8AzE3m077
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 15, 2020
However, Ocasio-Cortez said that when it comes down to it, “At the end of the day one of these two people are going to be president. It’s either going to be Donald Trump or Joe Biden that will be elected president in November.”
“And we have to live in the reality of those choices, and I know there may be a lot of people that are uncomfortable with that,” she added.
When pressed on whether she would be an “active surrogate” for Biden, she said, “A lot of that is up to our conversations that we have, and frankly the role that the Biden campaign wants.”
During an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez addressed progressive voters who said they would not vote for Biden, “For a lot of people this was not the outcome that they may have wanted, and this was not the choice that they wanted to make.”
“But ultimately, when it comes to those two, I don’t think it’s particularly close in terms of what communities will be made more vulnerable,” she added.
Watch the video below:
Rep. @AOC on some progressives claiming they’ll vote for a third-party presidential candidate in the election: “What’s really important is that we do realize that at the end of the day… It’s either going to be Joe Biden or it’s going to be Donald Trump.” https://t.co/tV50yC7vk3 pic.twitter.com/P6ZeNfYnZs
— The View (@TheView) April 15, 2020
However, she did call for Biden to adopt a much more progressive agenda.
“I think one thing that we can do is improve the policies that we have as a party to tell young people, to tell all sorts of people, ‘We see you, and we have a plan for you, and we’re going to create hope for all sorts of communities in the United States,'” she said.
