(WASHINGTON) — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to vote for the House GOP funding bill to avert a government shutdown “a tremendous mistake.”
She also avoided saying whether she’d primary Schumer next cycle even though it’s something some Democrats are privately urging her to do.
Ocasio-Cortez said she was concentrating on keeping Democrats from backing the funding bill, during an appearance on CNN.
“The strength of our leadership in this moment is going to demonstrate the strength of our caucus,” she told Jake Tapper.
Her comments came the same night that Schumer said he plans to vote to keep the government open, signaling that there will almost certainly be enough Democratic votes to advance a House GOP funding bill before a shutdown deadline at the end of the day Friday. The minority leader’s announcement amounted to a major break from House Democrats who voted nearly unanimously against the GOP funding bill earlier this week.
Ocasio-Cortez said passing the funding bill would “empower” President Donald Trump and his senior adviser Elon Musk.
“I cannot urge enough how bad of an idea it is to empower and enable Donald Trump and Elon Musk in this moment. It is dangerous and it is reckless,” she said.
However, Schumer contended that a decision to shut down the government would give Trump and Musk too much power to continue their federal worker cuts without discretion.
Ocasio-Cortez said there was still time to block the bill and that she hoped that “individuals that are considering” voting yes on cloture and the bill would “reconsider” their support.
The congresswoman repeated her calls on social media, encouraging voters to call Senate Democrats and urge their no vote on cloture and the GOP funding bill.
“Senate Democrats should not allow this chaos to continue,” she wrote on X.
CNN reported on Thursday that Ocasio-Cortez was urged by Democratic House colleagues at a retreat to challenge Schumer — even from some centrist members — following the announcement of his decision on the funding bill. She did not say whether she would consider taking on Schumer in a primary.
On Thursday at the retreat, House Democrats across the ideological spectrum maintained their opposition to the Republican-approved continuing resolution and kept the heat on their Senate counterparts to do the same. But the House would have to come back into session to pass the 30-day stopgap bill they are in support of. Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the idea that calling House members back would be a problem.
“House Democrats are in town. I mean, are we afraid of working? Is that the problem here? That the idea that, God forbid, members of Congress have to fly back and do their jobs? I mean, genuinely — come on,” AOC said on CNN.
Ocasio-Cortez lauded House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for whipping votes against the bill in the House.
“Every single House Democrat, including every single House Democrat who won a Trump district, except for one out of over 200 voted against this deeply partisan, extreme Republican spending bill … in terms of Democratic leadership in the House. We’ve seen that result in the House, I think it’s time that we see similar results in the Senate,” she added.
The congresswoman said her position is supported by the majority of Americans, most clearly evidenced by the heated town halls many members have been holding in recent weeks with their constituents.
“If anyone has held a town hall — or has seen what has been happening in town halls — American people, whether they are Republicans, independents, Democrats, are up in arms about Elon Musk and the actual gutting of federal agencies across the board. This continuing resolution codifies much of this chaos that Elon Musk is wreaking havoc on the federal government. It codifies many of those changes,” she said.
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