At a time of existential crisis for President Joe Biden, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has used her platform as a powerful ally of the embattled incumbent president. Democratic Party voices come out one after another who Ask him to withdraw From the 2024 presidential election.
As former President Donald Trump finished his lengthy speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, the widely-known AOC took to Instagram Live to speak directly to her thousands of followers, arguing against Biden’s withdrawal.
She questioned the feasibility of replacing Biden as the top candidate at this late stage and warned that some Republicans would launch legal challenges, which she said could lead to a “presidential election decided by Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court,” as in 2000.
Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly stressed that she respected rank-and-file voters’ views if Biden wanted a change of candidate and said she would not guarantee victory if Biden remained in the race, but warned that things could get more chaotic for Democrats if he remained in the race. take extraordinary action to end the election campaign Just weeks before the Democratic National Convention.
“If a candidate or a president is 10,000 percent sure that they cannot beat Donald Trump, then they can do what they feel is in good conscience. But I can’t see an alternative scenario that doesn’t put us at very, very great risk,” she said.
Surprisingly for the left-leaning Ocasio-Cortez, her comments have now made her one of Biden’s strongest supporters within the party. While more than 10% of congressional Democrats have called for Biden to drop out of the election, few have criticized them and made a case for Biden staying, and party leaders have said they would support whatever decision Biden makes.
While they support the president, Ocasio-Cortez and other prominent progressives have recently been trying to persuade Biden to embrace some of their priorities for a possible second term, including expanding Social Security, capping rent increases and removing medical debt from credit reports. Impose term limits on the Supreme Court.
Many progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), are driven primarily by policy goals and know they have Biden’s ear. If Biden were to step down, it’s unclear who would replace him and how that relationship would change.
But some worry that if the nominee remains, it could become President Trump, and there is no clear consensus on whether Vice President Kamala Harris has better or worse prospects in terms of elections and governance.
“Right now people are in an existential crisis, an emergency,” a progressive strategist said of the mood within the movement. “It’s crazy. … There’s also an angle of chaos: What happens if there’s a change in the slate of candidates?
The strategist said part of the reason progressives like Ocasio-Cortez support Biden is because of the “low-hanging bird phenomenon” – that having Biden in the White House gives them a “sense of security.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s views are not shared by the entire Congressional Progressive Caucus: The day after her livestream, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), a former co-chair of the Republican Progressive Caucus, called on Biden to back down.
“You must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and health are jeopardizing a campaign you must win,” Pocan said in a joint message to Biden with three other House Democrats. “While these perceptions may not be fair, they were solidified in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change. We believe the most responsible and patriotic action you can take at this time is to step down as nominee while continuing to lead your party from the White House.”
Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram Live broadcast that much of the effort to remove Biden from the race following his poor debate performance was coming from “donors” and “elites” who won’t allow an “easy transition” for Harris to become the nominee, but did not offer a comment on Harris or any other options.
“If you think there’s a consensus among those who want Joe Biden out of office that they’re going to support Vice President Harris, you’re mistaken,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I’m here, I know what they’re saying in these conversations, and many of them aren’t just interested in getting rid of the president. They’re interested in getting rid of all the nominees.”
She said the effort is driven by wealthy donors: “When I’m in the room talking to people, I hear, ‘My donors are this, my donors are that,’ and those are opinions that my colleagues are reflecting. It’s not, ‘My constituents are this,’ it’s, ‘This is what big donors are saying.'”
“I don’t really care what the rich guys think,” she added.
The progressive strategist also said that by accusing donors and elites of wanting to eliminate all candidates, Ocasio-Cortez may be “pre-empting” the inevitable question if Biden withdraws: whether he should give Harris the nomination or hold an open primary.
Her office has not commented further beyond her lengthy remarks to her followers on the platform. Biden, meanwhile, has repeatedly stressed he has no plans to retreat. He said he would return to the campaign trail next week after self-isolating following his COVID-19 diagnosis.
Lisa Lint Vander Zouwen, 46, of Grand Rapids and the mother of two school-age daughters, described herself as a “reluctant” Biden supporter. She said she would like to see Biden step down and replaced by a “strong woman,” but not without a competitor.
“It would be good to have the three of them involved in some kind of process,” she said. “I don’t know what that would look like, but they think Democrats are coming together to decide who they think is the leading candidate and why, not necessarily settling on Vice President Harris.”
Ocasio-Cortez also warned her supporters that Biden has a unique electoral strength that no other Democrat can replicate.
“Joe Biden is dominating seniors, they’re one of the strongest and most stable voters, but they’re also a hard demographic for Democrats to win, and they’re not on Twitter,” she said. “You can’t assume that they’re going to move to another candidate.”
