Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) commented on Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong‘s past statements about abolishing police and prisons during an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. Cortez was also asked about her stance on such issues.
Ocasio-Cortez used a joke to answer these questions, quoting a New York City councilman’s line about them. Co-anchor Jonathan Karl asked Ocasio-Cortez for her opinion on Hong, a democratic socialist who made headlines last week after a deleted post in which she argued for canceling Thanksgiving.
According to Mediaite, Hong recently gave a rambling answer about the post the following Monday, then told Politico two days later that Thanksgiving was now her favorite holiday. Ocasio-Cortez said Hong had “moved away” from many of her past positions, including her calls to abolish prisons and police. She then referred to a local New York City councilman’s phrase to describe the situation, saying, “Woke 1 was crazy.”
AOC pointed to the Covid-19 lockdown period when discussing past positions
The comment made Karl laugh. He then asked Ocasio-Cortez whether Democrats had gone “too far” with some of their positions, noting that she had “briefly supported the idea of defunding the police” in the past.
Ocasio-Cortez responded by pointing to the COVID-19 lockdown period as a time when people were more open to extreme ideas. “During this time, and especially during Covid, there was a huge opening of the Overton window… and I think the doors were really opened in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place,” she said.
She added that the discussions held during that period were valuable. “And I actually think the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She also said the way people talked about these issues during lockdown does not match how people talk about them now. “During lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric we would use today,” she said. Hong has faced criticism from other public figures too, including comedian Bill Maher, who criticized her comments about her son.
Ocasio-Cortez herself had made similar comments in the past to those she described as part of “Woke 1.” In 2019, she said it was time to have a “real conversation” about abolishing prisons.
Despite defending Hong’s past comments as a product of the times, Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse her campaign. When Karl asked if she planned to support Hong, Ocasio-Cortez said, “No, I haven’t endorsed in that race. My focus has been in winning back the Congress.” Ocasio-Cortez has weighed in on other political matters recently as well, including her past remarks on why Mitch McConnell should resign.
