Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stealing some of the spotlight from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi?
Newly elected Democratic congresswoman issues her own response to President Trump's Oval Office address; reaction from Democratic strategist David Brown and Charlie Hurt, opinion editor at The Washington Times.
Rising liberal star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is hitting back at fellow Democrats who reportedly are concerned about her confrontational style.
Ocasio-Cortez has taken Congress and the political world by storm ever since her upset primary win over a member of party leadership last year -- bringing a new impetus to liberal proposals like the Green New Deal and Medicare-for-all. She’s also been widely covered in the media, with a sharp focus on her Twitter account where she often calls out opponents and promotes her favorite causes.
But, according to Politico, she is drawing critics in the more established parts of the House Democratic caucus, who are reportedly mounting an operation to bring her into line -- with warnings that she will be on her own and ineffective if she keeps "sniping" inside the party tent.
“She needs to decide: Does she want to be an effective legislator or just continue being a Twitter star?” one House Democrat told the outlet. “There’s a difference between being an activist and a lawmaker in Congress.”
That sentiment was echoed by former Sen. Joe Lieberman, who said on Fox Business Network that Ocasio-Cortez should not be the future of the party.
“With all respect,” he told Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto on Thursday, “I certainly hope she’s not the future and I don’t believe she is.”
OCASIO-CORTEZ BLASTS TRUMP SPEECH, SUGGESTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS 'MORE AMERICAN'
“If you look at the majority of new Democrats in the House, they tend to be, I say, center-left, if they are not left-left,” he said. “And that is because they had to be center-left to win some of those competitive swing districts that they took from Republicans. So that’s the hope.”
But Ocasio-Cortez swiped back with a snarky: “New party, who dis?” (a play on “new phone, who dis?” a meme people use to pretend not to know who a texter is).
As for the Politico article, she approvingly retweeted a user who said “you cannot rein in Latinas” and used a quote from comic book writer Alan Moore.
“None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with YOU. You're locked up in here with ME,” she wrote.
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Her tweets do appear to be having an effect on lawmakers, as Politico reported that some Democrats have withheld their criticism of Ocasio-Cortez in case she goes after them on the social media platform.
“People are afraid of her,” one senior Democratic aide told the outlet.
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