After her attempt to blame former President Donald Trump for her grandmother’s poor living conditions backfired badly, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is making waves again. In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, the second-term congresswomen grew increasingly impatient with the mainstream attitudes of her party.
First, and perhaps most predictably, Ocasio-Cortez went after what she called “the elephant in the room” — moderate Senate Democrats who she accused of having no legitimate reason for stalling President Joe Biden’s agenda.
AOC: "I do think that we need to talk about the elephant in the room, which is Senate Democrats which are blocking crucial items in a Democratic agenda for reasons that I don't think hold a lot of water." pic.twitter.com/t3ixCCQ6cV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2021
Though Ocasio-Cortez did not name anyone specifically, her comments are a clear jab at Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who both oppose reforming the legislative filibuster. Their opposition all but ensures that H.R. 1 — the comprehensive voting rights first introduced by Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) — will fail in the Senate.
Ocasio-Cortez also weighed in on progressives’ push to convince Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, saying that she would “probably lean toward” supporting Breyer’s retirement.
AOC on if she thinks Justice Breyer should retire: "I would probably lean toward yes." pic.twitter.com/yG1fqvU2eY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2021
The 82-year-old Clinton appointee has served on the Court since 1994, and has generally delivered moderately left-of-center opinions. The idea of replacing Breyer with a younger, more reliably progressive Justice was first suggested back in April by another New York Democrat, Rep. Mondaire Jones.
When asked about whether or not she will back the Democrats’ dwindling infrastructure bill, Ocasio-Cortez simply answered, “I doubt it.” She cited the lack of action being taken on climate change as the main reason, but it is unlikely that the bill would pass without the support of Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of “The Squad.”
With an eight-vote majority, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) knows that she can’t afford to alienate the six-member Squad, which is why she avoided rebuking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for crying Islamophobia when she was rightly called out for supporting Hamas.
Now, Ocasio-Cortez’s interview has left Pelosi with another mess to clean up and potentially dealt another major blow to the Biden agenda. The outlooks of HR1, infrastructure spending, and filibuster reform are looking increasingly grim. It will take some smooth maneuvering by the Democratic leadership to get out of this one, and so far this Congress, they have not proven capable of that.
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