Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likes being known as AOC, but a Republican planning to run against the former bartender came up with a new meaning for her moniker.
“AOC – All Out Crazy – wants to establish a new Soviet Republic,” Rich Valdes told some 100 people at the Queens Village Republican Club meeting on Thursday evening. “I believe in capitalism over socialism. Her misguided policies don’t represent the district.”
Valdes is a Republican from New Jersey who plans to move to Ocasio-Cortez’s district in order to oppose her in the 2020 election. He is a conservative radio producer who formerly worked for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Valdes said AOC is focusing on the environment — offering the Green New Deal, with a pricetag of $93 trillion over a decade — when her constituents care about other issues.
“She’s great at fundraising but not at constituent services. Ask around, most constituents don’t think climate change is a number one issue,” he said.
He also said Ocasio-Cortez, who has appeared on every late-night talk show and traveled the country hitting high-profile events, spends too little time in her district.
“People see me and they say, ‘Wow, we see you more than we see her!’ ” he said.
Valdes has an uphill battle. Ocasio-Cortez won her district in the Queens and the Bronx with 78% after upsetting 10-term Democrat incumbent Joe Crowley, who served as Chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2017 to 2019.
In her short time in office, Ocasio-Cortez has shown a deep lack of education on far more important matters.
Last year, “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover asked her, “What is your position on Israel?”
She said she thinks “that what people are starting to see at least in the occupation … of Palestine [is] just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition and that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue.”
Asked to elaborate, AOC started her answer by saying, “I think what I meant…” She wasn’t exactly sure what she meant. Then she added: “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue. … Middle Eastern politics is not exactly at my kitchen table every night.”
In another video post, she said Democrats are looking “to take back all three chambers of Congress.” Then she stopped to correct herself — and made it much worse. “Rather, all three chambers of government — the presidency, the Senate and the House.” Close, but the three branches are executive, legislative and judicial. And that’s something most eighth-graders know.
The month before she took office, she posted on Twitter that $21 trillion “of Pentagon financial transactions could not be traced, documented or explained. $21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon.”
The liberal Washington Post gave that claim four Pinocchios, the most it awards for flat-out falsehoods.
But AOC has an explanation for her string of errors and gaffes and just plain dumb statements. In a CNN appearance the day after she was sworn into office, she said, “I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.”
As Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
