Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a simple message for an unnamed senior Democrat who reportedly said the party had “resigned ourselves” to a second Trump presidency: “Retire.”
The anonymous Democrat was quoted by Axios on Sunday, the day after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency,” the source reportedly said, adding that the Trump shooting had taken focus away from calls to replace Joe Biden as Democrats’ nominee for president because of concerns about his age and fitness for office, because it would be “bad form to make any statements against” him now.
Ocasio-Cortez, 34, a leading US House progressive popularly known as AOC, responded with a stinging social media message.
“If you’re a ‘senior Democrat’ that feels this way you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism.
“This kind of leadership is functionally useless to the American people. Retire.”
Ocasio-Cortez earlier addressed the assassination attempt in which Trump was hit in the ear, one rally-goer was killed and two injured.
“There is no place for political violence, including the horrific incident we just witnessed in Pennsylvania,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It is absolutely unacceptable and must be denounced in the strongest terms.
“My heart goes out to all the victims and I wish the former president a speedy recovery.”
Unlike the 19 congressional Democrats (18 in the House and one in the Senate) who have publicly said Biden should quit, as well as several big donors and supporters prominently including George Clooney, Ocasio-Cortez has backed Biden’s candidacy.
So has Bernie Sanders, the progressive independent senator from Vermont who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020.
“Enough!” Sanders, 82, wrote in the New York Times. “Mr Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate. And with an effective campaign that speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr Trump but beat him badly.”
On Sunday, another independent senator, Joe Manchin, the former Democrat from West Virginia, told NBC such “vocal support for President Biden in the face of his irreparable debate performance” in Atlanta last month was “just evidence of how much control the far left has over the current administration”.
Ameshia Cross, a former Obama campaign adviser, noted that progressives see Biden as committed to supporting Black and LGBTQ+ Americans and combating the climate crisis.
“These are things that matter to the progressive left, and the president has actually worked on those things,” Cross said.
