Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has put forth a plan to “push” Joe Biden to adopt more liberal ideas than voters may associate with him.
The progressive lawmaker seemed to play into President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about his election rival in a Tuesday interview with Just the News, saying she expects the far left can “push” Biden “in a more progressive direction.”
“A more progressive direction”
As Trump assails Biden as a “puppet” of the radical left, Biden has been at pains to show voters that he is still the moderate that many have thought of him as being over the years.
But there is no doubt that Biden’s platform is far to the left of the philosophy he espoused for much of his political career. For starters, he is promising to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, as the Washington Examiner has reported.
Not progressive enough? No problem. “I think, overall, we can likely push Vice President Biden in a more progressive direction across policy issues,” Ocasio-Cortez told Just the News Tuesday.
The New York lawmaker pointed to health care and marijuana policy as just two areas where Biden can “improve.” Biden supports a public option, but not Medicare for All, like the far left of his party. And earlier this year, Biden was mocked on the debate stage over his opposition to legalizing pot — a position that seemed to identify him as belonging to a bygone era, when many Democrats espoused tough-on-crime views that are now largely verboten with the party.
“One perfect example is that I believe in the legalization of marijuana, not just decriminalization, but full legalization, regulation, etc.,” AOC said in her interview.
Hashing it out
Biden could still move further to the left on immigration, health care, climate change, and criminal justice, Ocasio-Cortez said. The former vice president has so far avoided “defund the police” rhetoric, while vowing transformative changes to policing.
“But, you know, we will hash those out,” Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday, according to Just the News. “Our main priority is to make sure that the vice president is successful and victorious in November so that we can have those kinds of conversations in the first place from a more effective stance with him in the White House.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments come after both Joe Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, referred to a “Harris administration” on the campaign trail recently, prompting the Trump campaign to repeat attacks that Biden is a mere “puppet” and “Trojan horse” of the radical left, Fox News reported.
But that rhetoric seems almost unnecessarily elaborate. Is this really a secret conspiracy? The Democrats seem to be quite open about this plan of theirs.
Take it from the party’s most famous progressive: as far as the radical left is concerned, Biden’s as pliable as putty.
The post Ocasio-Cortez says Biden can 'likely' be pushed 'in a more progressive direction': Report first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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