Dana Perino says both left, right ignoring AOC and her socialism at their 'peril'

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Do Dems think there's risk in mainstreaming AOC's extreme agenda?

Bret Baier and Dana Perino discuss the future of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her extreme agenda

Democrats and Republicans alike ignore the socialist philosophy endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., at their peril, Fox News host Dana Perino warned on Wednesday.

"The Five" co-host Jesse Watters had asked Perino about Democrats potentially needing to appease Ocasio-Cortez and her supporters if they win in November.

"If they were to win, then there's another constituency that they need to deal with that will be very powerful, and that will be women and suburban women, which are not Marxist in any way," Perino responded. "So, that’s going to be difficult."

On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez gave brief remarks seconding the nomination of Bernie Sanders for president on the second night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

AOC CALLS OUT 'RACIAL INJUSTICE, COLONIZATION, MISOGYNY' IN MINUTE-LONG DNC SPEECH

"I think she is super-exciting. I was excited to see what she had to say," Perino said. "Look, it only takes a minute to say out loud what you put on Twitter and it's very easy to say things like free college, free healthcare. All of that works very well if you don’t have to provide details or answer any follow-up questions, though I know she's done an interview or two, you don't ever really get to 'How would you do this?' and 'How would you pay for this?'

"And I do think that the right and the left ignores this ideology at its peril because it's taking hold amongst younger people so that they don’t want to take a step-by-step incremental progress move. They want everything at all once. They want to leapfrog."

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While Democratic leaders have resisted her progressive pushes, Ocasio-Cortez has been successful on some fronts. For example, a slew of major Democratic presidential candidate -- including former Vice President Joe Biden -- endorsed her "Green New Deal" as part of their climate proposals.

But Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier speculated the DNC saw a risk in having her take too prominent a place at this week's event.

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"They gave her less time," he said, referring to the 60-second windown for Ocasio-Cortez's speech. "You see this on Capitol Hill when Nancy Pelosi does what she does, she says that they're only a few in number as far as her caucus [the 'Squad'].

"But I’ll tell you, she's been on 'Special Report,' I’ve interviewed her ... She is very passionate about her beliefs," Baier added. "She has a big following. You may say it’s completely wrong ideologically, but she is a rock star when it comes to this party. So they were compelled to put her on the agenda ... she's calling for big change. I mean big transitions. And that’s not what we’ve seen from the first two nights of the DNC."