Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., made a thinly veiled criticism of the Democratic Party’s leadership Saturday, praising the U.K.’s political system for allowing the recent ouster of Prime Minister Liz Truss while bristling at how difficult it is to remove leaders under the U.S. system.
The far-left lawmaker made the comments during an Instagram Live session on Saturday night. One viewer, from the U.K., asked Ocasio-Cortez what her thoughts were on Britain’s ongoing political upheaval, with two prime ministers being forced to resign within three months. Truss announced her resignation last week amid record-breaking inflation and uproar against her economic policies.
“Can’t speak for the world, but honestly I respect the U.K. for having a political system that is responsive and independent enough to swiftly make corrections in situations such as these,” Ocasio-Cortez told the viewer. “I respect that your parliamentary system seems to afford a greater level of independence and accountability than the U.S., where our two-party duopoly forces people to have much more limited political options.”
“Think about it. We had Trump for four years, no take-backs. Imagine being stuck like that,” she added. “Or being a rich country with no guaranteed health care. Now, that’s embarrassing.”
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dodged a question about whether she would support President Biden in 2024 on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss addresses the media on Downing Street in London on Oct. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
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Ocasio-Cortez represents the Democratic Party’s leftmost wing and has long chafed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders within the Democratic Party. She has repeatedly led her “squad” of fellow progressive women, Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., to oppose legislation Pelosi was organizing to support. The group’s first major fracture with the speaker came in 2019 with a border funding bill. While the squad was unable to stop the bill, Pelosi later called a one-on-one meeting with Ocasio-Cortez to publicly smooth things over.
“We are the Democratic Party. … In our caucus, we have our differences. Respect that instead of making a big issue of it,” Pelosi said at the time. “We sat down today, we had a good meeting. The congresswoman is a very gracious member of Congress, so we had a very positive conversation.”
“I feel … it’s like you’re in a family. In a family, you have your differences, but you’re still family. We just had a meeting to clear the air,” she added.
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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks to reporters during her weekly press conference at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Despite her professionalism toward Ocasio-Cortez in the press, Pelosi has engaged in some of her own criticism of the younger congresswoman and her squad. USA Today journalist Susan Page wrote in her book on Pelosi, “Madam Speaker,” that Pelosi often spoke of AOC as if she were a belligerent child.
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“You’re not a one-person show. This is the Congress of the United States,” she said when asked what advice she might have for the congresswoman.