Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ousted 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., in Tuesday night’s Democratic primary in New York, said Wednesday that politicians can’t get into Twitter spats with President Trump if they want to move their agenda forward.
“What we need to do is lay out a plan and a vision that people can believe in, and getting into Twitter fights with the president is not exactly, I think, where we’re going to find progress as a nation,” Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC when addressing the fact that she did not once say Trump’s name during her campaign.
[Related: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she supports impeaching Trump]
Ocasio-Cortez also said that in order to achieve some of her agenda points such as “Medicare for all,” tuition-free public universities and trade schools, and a federal jobs guarantee, Congress would need to have the courage to raise taxes and roll back tax cuts.
She also wants to rethink the cuts made under the George W. Bush administration in the early 2000s.
“It was when people precisely said, ‘we have the least amount of ability to do this,’ that we actually committed to an economically ambitious agenda that transformed the future and the course of this nation,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I think that it is absolutely possible, but what it takes is the political courage to do it.”
The 28-year-old victor has the opportunity in the general elections in November to become the youngest woman elected to Congress.
