Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed concerns about the Party's messaging and internal dynamics. In the wide-ranging interview, Ocasio-Cortez also described her relationship with the party as "weird" and pointed to a "power struggle" within its ranks.
"I think structurally, overall, the Democratic Party has this confused message," AOC said during a passage of an interview with the Latino USA podcast hosted by Maria Hinojosa. "We're supposed to be a party of the working class, and I think working-class people have not been seeing government work for them, despite a lot of the things that the Biden administration did do."
Ocasio-Cortez went on to argue that what she described as the party's inconsistent messaging contributed to its loss in the 2024 presidential election, adding that while Democrats are a coalition, the party is undergoing an internal battle over its direction:
"I have a weird relationship with the Democratic Party. I don't believe in a two-party system, but I also understand the Democratic Party is a coalition and if we want the party to change, the balance of the coalition has to change. But right now, you open the hood on the Democratic Party, what you have is, I think, a bit of a power struggle over the last couple of years"
In another passage of the episode, AOC also pointed to the loss of affluent Latino voters as a significant factor in the election outcome, suggesting that the Trump campaign effectively drove a wedge between different groups within the Latino community, particularly undocumented immigrants and recent asylum seekers:
"I will tell you in our community the anger was less about we need to deport immigrants, the anger was actually how the Trump administration and the campaign was actually very surgical and very sophisticated about drawing a wedge between undocumented people and recent arrivals and asylum seekers"
Ocasio-Cortez also addressed concerns about immigration policy under Trump, warning of the economic consequences of mass deportations. "For all of the people who cast a vote based on grocery prices and inflation, if you think your groceries are expensive now, wait until the farms are empty," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez was also on the news last week when she criticized Trump's recent freeze on federal funding, calling it a "constitutional crisis" on a post on X:
Trump is holding all the nation’s hospitals and vital services hostage to seize power from Congress and hand it over to billionaires.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2025
We must state the truth: this is a constitutional crisis. It’s a massive, illegal power grab that the House and Senate have a sworn duty to stop.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo last Tuesday announcing a freeze on grants and loans to nearly 2,600 agencies and programs, requiring organizations to report whether they promote initiatives such as environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion, or provide services to undocumented immigrants.
While a second OMB memo stated that Medicaid, Head Start, and other essential programs would be unaffected, multiple states reported disruptions.
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