Joe Biden doubts that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist vision is a winning platform for the Democratic Party.
“By the way, I think Ocasio-Cortez is a brilliant, bright woman, but she won a primary,” the former vice president said in a CNN interview aired Friday. “In the general election fights, who won? Mainstream Democrats who are very progressive on social issues and very strong on education and healthcare.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old freshman congresswoman from New York, unexpectedly defeated 19-year incumbent Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley in the 2018 primary election. Crowley was thought to be a potential heir to now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi as leader of the House Democrats. She did face a Republican opponent in the 2018 general election, but the heavily Democratic district elected Ocasio-Cortez with 78% of the vote, making her the youngest elected member of Congress.
Democrats won back the House in 2018 due in part to Democrats winning in hotly contested districts, unlike Ocasio-Cortez’s district, based in Queens and the Bronx.
“That’s what this election is about. I’m happy to debate that issue and all those issues with my friends because guess what, look who won the races. Look who won last time out,” Biden said.
Biden rejects many proposals that his progressive primary rivals push, like a single-payer “Medicare for all” healthcare system that virtually eliminates private health insurance.
“I have a plan how to do that that’s rational, that will cost a hell of a lot less and that will work,” Biden said, suggesting “an option for anybody who in fact wants to buy into ‘Medicare for all.'”
Biden argues that most Democrats “are where I am on the issues.”
“It’s center-left, that’s where I am. Where it’s not is way left,” he said.
