The position puts her at odds with some on the left, such as Rep. Ro Khanna, another potential 2028 contender, who said he wants to find “common ground” with people like Greene.
In a conversation Friday at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics moderated by David Axelrod, the onetime political strategist to President Barack Obama, a student asked Ocasio-Cortez whether she stood by past remarks that there were “legitimate white supremacist sympathizers at the core of the House of Representatives caucus” and, if so, why she worked with some of them.
Ocasio-Cortez did stand by them and said she wasn’t scared of reaching across the aisle, holding up her work with Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. But she set a clear boundary.
“I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite, on the issue of what is good for Gazans and Israelis,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I don’t think it benefits our movement in that instance to align the left with white nationalists. I don’t think it serves us.”
You don’t have to trust MTG in order to work with her across the aisle to sign legislation putting an end to funding Israeli genocide. The two things can be true together.
This is an infuriatingly divisive lib take by AOC, and sadly further evidence she’s just not ready for a presidential run. I truly hope she reconsiders and goes after Chucklefuck’s senate seat instead, it would do way more good for the movement that way.
MTG is no longer in congress, so there is no reaching across the aisle to sign legislation. She quit literally the day her pension became vested.
MTG was in congress when she drafted a bill to reduce military aid to Israel, and AOC voted against it.
So I take then you know that was the only issue the bill addressed, with no riders, so you’re certain it should have passed. The MTG bill definitely didn’t fund any wacko conservative garbage, right?
Well, no. Pretty much the only bills that get passed in modern era Congress are omnibus budget bills. MTG’s Israeli funding reduction was a specific amendment to one such bill, which AOC chose to vote against.
I’m sure the rest of what got passed had all sorts of whacko conservative garbage within, because they control the entire federal government at this time. This is likely partially why AOC voted against the actual bill as well.
That said, if you consider Israeli control of the US government an existential threat, which I do, then that makes it even more important to find opportunities to work with the conservatives in power to curtail Israel’s influence, which MTG’s amendment would have done.
AOC could have had her cake and eaten it too, by voting to pass the amendment to remove some funding to Israel, and then casting a performative nay vote for the overall budget bill.
So yeah, I’m disappointed that she chose partisan politics above achieving an impactful, measurable result. But that’s liberals for you. The only reason I care is because I hold AOC to a higher standard than most of them, because she is by far the closest to representing my own values in terms of her actual voting record and what she claims to believe in.
To other users reading this: This user tends to argue in bad faith and I’d advise tagging them accordingly, but I’ll just clarify for the record:
AOC voted against that bill because it actually enabled offensive bombs to continue while gutting defensive Iron Dome measures. AOC has long been a proponent of defensive measures that protect civilian life, independent of national flags. However, given the latest number of loopholes that Israel has used, AOC has as of April 1st adjusted her position to refuse ALL military aid to Israel.
Cash is fungible. Israel doesn’t care what it’s earmarked for, giving them money further enables the genocide. The important thing is that the US attempt to apply leverage by reducing what we give them.
My positions on Israeli genocide and the shameful involvement of the US, due to our government being captured wholly by Israel, have been consistent throughout.
It’s funny you make this claim however. The bad faith argument was from AOC claiming that she had to vote no because of offensive weaponry, when in fact she did so because her esteemed colleagues told her to heel. After the vote, she changes her position. Interesting.
Speculative.
Perhaps. But just to put a fine point on this matter - I am glad that AOC came around to the correct position on whether we should continue funding the terrorist nation state of Israel, in that we absolutely should not. They are literally using this money to buy off our politicians so that they don’t work for us, instead they work for Israel. It’s wrong in every possible way.
I sincerely hope this is how AOC will vote regarding bankrolling Israel in the future, regardless of whether the authors of said bills have an R next to their name, or whether she perceives them to be a hypothetical future opponent in a presidential race.
It’s honestly both striking and funny to me that someone who had denounced Harris under this same purity test now suddenly is saying the left should work with fascists because there is common ground.
lol wow. Just wow.
I guess that’s single-issue tankies for you.
Harris introduced legislation to defund Israel? When did I miss that?
Ok well MTG isn’t running for president, nor would I vote for her if she did because like AOC, I don’t trust her at all.
However, when she drafted a bill to reduce aid to Israel by 500mil, AOC voted against it. AOC claims she is about results, but then does her own purity tests like this which further enable genocide. It is damaging, divisive, and disingenuous of her to do so.
AOC voted against the amendment that MTG proposed to a funding bill. AOC then voted against the full bill when it came up for a vote.
Edit: the amendment got a total of 6 votes in favor