Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does not agree with progressives who have suggested Marjorie Taylor Greene is someone progressives can now trust, she told an audience at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on Friday.
Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t directly asked about Greene, who has gained the begrudging support of some on the left for her more recent anti-MAGA comments, by a student at the event, but the conversation quickly trended in that direction.
“In 2021, you stated that there were, quote, ‘legitimate white supremacist sympathizers at the core of the House of Representatives caucus,’” the student said. “Yet since then, in efforts to ban congressional insider trading of securities, you’ve worked across the aisle with representatives such as Representative Tim Burchett, a Republican from the state of Tennessee. Do you stand by those former comments?”
After thanking the student for the question, Ocasio-Cortez answered, “I do stand by those comments — it’s just true! And for his part, you know, Congressman Burchett has called me a communist, and a witch, and whatever it is, and I, yeah, but you know what? We gotta ban insider trading in Congress. And I don’t … I care about results, I care about results.”
But that doesn’t apply to everyone, she continued. “Now, there are certain places where, certain areas where I don’t think that we should ignore some folks’ record on some of these issues, right? It’s about where we trust intent, where we trust where those outcomes are going,” Ocasio-Coretz added.
“I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite, on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis. I don’t! I don’t think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists. I don’t think it serves us. And so I think it’s about looking at the context, the place, the results, the outcomes, intentions, and where we think that train would go.”
Last November Greene condemned the president for encouraging rhetorical attacks against her that “has historically led to death threats and multiple convictions of men who were radicalized by the same type rhetoric being directed at me right now.”
“This time by the President of the United States. As a woman I take threats from men seriously,” she wrote on X. “I now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women, who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal, must feel.”
In April, Greene insisted Trump “hates women.”
“President Trump hates women he can’t control, who don’t worship him, women who actually worship God, and are much more intelligent than he is,” Greene wrote in response to a Truth Social post in which Trump referred to Candace Owns as “Vile Person of the Year.”
“Women like @RealCandaceO. This cruel post about Candace looks like something Laura Loomer would conjure up as she gives Trump his talking points, policy decisions, and political advice which is literally destroying him and the Republican Party.”
But Greene has her own troubled history that includes espousing antisemitic beliefs and elevating conspiracy theories.
“Antisemitism is not a cudgel to be used against people for political points,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said in March 2023 “State of the Union,” reporting from Tel Aviv and visibly heated over Greene’s commentary. “Nor is Islamophobia or racism or anti-gay behavior or misogyny or any other kind of bigotry.”
