Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is firing back at Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) after he mocked “defund the police” and “crazy socialist” agendas.
“Defund the police? Defund, my butt. I’m a proud West Virginia Democrat. We are the party of working men and women. We want to protect Americans’ jobs & healthcare. We do not have some crazy socialist agenda, and we do not believe in defunding the police,” Manchin tweeted.
Ocasio-Cortez responded by posting an image of herself staring at Manchin while he applauded during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1326969135826427906
Ocasio-Cortez dismissed claims from her Democratic colleagues suggesting progressive agendas lost them seats in the House.
“The conversation is a little bit deeper than that … than just saying, ‘Anything progressive is toxic and a losing message,'” she said, as IJR previously reported.
Ocasio-Cortez criticized former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) for implying Democrats lost seats because some members took progressive positions on a number of social issues driving voters away, as IJR previously reported.
“The Republican party, I think very adroitly, adopted cultural issues as part of their main theme,” McCaskill said during an appearance on MSNBC.
She added, “Whether you are talking guns or issues surrounding the right to abortion in this country or things like gay marriage and the right for ‘transexuals’ and other people who we as a party ‘look after’ and make sure they are treated fairly.”
McCaskill argued “we left voters behind, and Republicans dove in with a vengeance and grabbed those voters.”
Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to express her frustration with McCaskill’s remarks.
“Why do we listen to people who lost elections as if they are experts in winning elections?” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She continued, “McCaskill tried her approach. She ran as a caravan-hysteria Dem [and] lost while grassroots organizers won progressive measures in MO. Her language here shows how she took her base for granted.”
