That’s a Joe blow!
Ocasio-Cortez the strife of our party: Lieberman
[Her] surprise victory . . . seems likely to hurt Congress, America and the . . . party. — Joe Lieberman
Former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman is knocking progressive superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a hard-core leftist whose election to Congress would damage the party — and he’s urging Rep. Joe Crowley to jump back into the race.
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise primary victory [on June 26] over Rep. Joe Crowley seems likely to hurt Congress, America and the Democratic Party,” the former Connecticut lawmaker, who remains influential in the party, wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
“Because the policies Ms. Ocasio-Cortez advocates are so far from the mainstream, her election in November would make it harder for Congress to stop fighting and start fixing problems,” he continued.
“Fortunately, Joe Crowley and the voters in his [Queens] district can prevent this damage. On Election Day, his name will be on the ballot as the endorsed candidate of the Working Families Party.”
Lieberman, the Democrats’ 2000 vice-presidential candidate who finished his Senate career as an independent, urged Crowley to resume campaigning.
“For Mr. Crowley to have a chance at getting reelected, he will have to decide if he wants to remain an active candidate. I hope he does,” Lieberman said, before branding Ocasio-Cortez a hard-core socialist with extreme leftist views who would “bankrupt the country.”
But Crowley, who has said he supports Ocasio-Cortez, responded in a tweet, “Still not running.”
Ocasio-Cortez has called for the abolition of ICE, an issue the GOP has used on the national level to brand Democrats as weak on crime and illegal immigration.
Lieberman went on, “Ms. Ocasio-Cortez didn’t speak much about foreign policy during the primary, but when she did, it was from the [Democratic Socialists of America] policy book— meaning support for socialist governments, even if they are dictatorial and corrupt (Venezuela), opposition to American leadership in the world, even to alleviate humanitarian disasters (Syria), and reflexive criticism of one of America’s great democratic allies (Israel).”
Ocasio-Cortez had come under fire for an interview Friday on PBS’s “Firing Line” in which she called Israel an “occupation” force over Palestinians.
Her campaign declined to comment on Lieberman’s remarks.