In a podcast interview with ‘Intercepted’ that aired Wednesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) said it’s time for the era of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to come to an end.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested the two leaders – House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer – need to go, but also that there also needs to be solid leadership to fill their respective roles.
She was asked by the interviewer if it was time to replace the duo.
“I do think we need new leadership in the Democratic Party,” AOC (D-NY) said.
“I think one of the things that I have struggled with, I think that a lot of people struggle with, is the internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there [are] very little options for succession.”
She went on to warn her fellow progressives that pushing Pelosi and Schumer out could lead to “nefarious forces” allowing “something even worse” to take their place.
RELATED: AOC Turns On Democrats – Blasts them As ‘Incompetent’ After Election Losses
AOC And The ‘Squad’ Are Champing At The Bit To Get Rid Of Pelosi And Schumer
AOC and the Island of Misfit Legislators known as the ‘Squad’ have been fighting with their party’s leadership for some time.
This past election – where Democrats lost a dozen House seats and failed to flip any state legislatures – has made the rift worse.
Audio of a wild conference call amongst Democrat lawmakers leaked shortly after the election.
It featured several members of the Democrat caucus “angrily confronting” Pelosi over their election losses and blasting the ‘Squad.’
“Squad” members fired back with allegations that moderates were being racist.
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez blasted party leadership as ‘incompetent’ in an interview with the New York Times following the election losses.
“Our party isn’t even online, not in a real way that exhibits competence,” she criticized. “And so, yeah, they were vulnerable to these messages, because they weren’t even on the mediums where these messages were most potent.”
“The party — in and of itself — does not have the core competencies, and no amount of money is going to fix that,” AOC continued.
NEW: Ocasio-Cortez: I’m “not ready” to be Speaker but Pelosi and Schumer need to go https://t.co/jN5oClhnvY pic.twitter.com/deSwTmC7q3
— The Hill (@thehill) December 16, 2020
RELATED: Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff: Illegal Immigrants Should Be Paid A Minimum Wage
Some Progressives Aren’t Buying What AOC Is Selling
Ocasio-Cortez went on to say that a “vacuum” may remain where Pelosi and Schumer once reigned, one she is not ready to fill.
“The House is extraordinarily complex and I’m not ready,” she said. “It can’t be me. I know that I couldn’t do that job.”
Refreshingly honest take from a politician, to be fair.
Progressives on social media, in the interim, have been hammering AOC on social media for not pushing their agenda and forcing a vote on Medicare For All.
I wrote a defense of the @jimmy_dore plan. https://t.co/BRrVuT364C
— BJG ? (@briebriejoy) December 15, 2020
They have implored the New York socialist and her fellow far-left colleagues to withhold their vote for Pelosi as House Speaker until Medicare For All is brought to the floor for a vote.
“I’m incapable of mounting a pressure campaign around my idea, but now that there is one for a Med4all Vote, I wanna complain that we should do something else! Problem is that I don’t know how to actually start a pressure campaign as well as a pothead comedian, sucks to be me” https://t.co/yzsal5M6af
— Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) December 16, 2020
You know what Sex Workers could really use @AOC? Med4all!!!
You RAN on it!! but now you have a chance to implement it & U won’t fight for it. Maybe if @J_ManPrime21 ask you it will be real? But what’s real is you are revealing yourself to be a regular Democrat. #ForceTheVote https://t.co/fqnfmpuom8
— Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) December 16, 2020
“If progressives do threaten to withhold their support from Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez said, their demand shouldn’t be merely for a floor vote on Medicare for All, which is sure to fail,” the Intercept countered in their report on the podcast interview.
Pelosi was re-elected Speaker of the House after running unopposed in November but will need 218 Democratic votes to be sworn in again in January.
On the Senate side, Schumer also won reelection without facing any in-party challenges.
