Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Instagram Friday morning slammed her Democratic colleagues who have privately called for President Joe Biden to step down as the party’s nominee.
"That's bullshit. If you have an opinion, say it with your chest and say it in public. That's a bunch of horseshit," Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to Democratic officials who have anonymously voiced their concerns to the press about Biden’s mental acuity and ability to take on Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.
"If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave, that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken. They are interested in removing the whole ticket," the New York Democrat added.
Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow "Squad" members have been Biden’s strongest defenders since the octogenarian’s disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27 caused a major schism within his party. The president—who was once a center-left moderate—has leaned into his far-left support and pushed for progressive policies such as rent control and term limits for Supreme Court justices.
Ocasio-Cortez, in her Friday message, accused her fellow Democrats of caving to donors and ignoring voters.
"When I'm talking to folks in rooms, I hear, 'My donor this, my donor that.' Those are the inputs that I am hearing reflected by my colleagues, it's not, 'My voters this, my voters that,’" Ocasio-Cortez said. "You're a neolib, sellout careerist. I mean, if I were here to sell out, I'd be making—there are much more profitable, peaceful ways, I assure you."
A poll released on Thursday and conducted after Saturday's near-assassination of Trump shows the former president ahead of Biden nationally and in all seven anticipated swing states. Nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters want Biden to step down from his campaign, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted July 11-15.
"For the good of the country, I think it is time for the President to pass the torch to the next generation to carry on the legacy he started," Rep. Jim Costa (D., Calif.) said in a statement on Thursday.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), and House Democratic Caucus head Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) have also called on Biden to reconsider. Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime ally of Biden, privately said she would do "everything in her power" to get Biden off the ticket.
"Maybe I'm being too risk-averse," Ocasio-Cortez conceded. "Maybe I'm not seeing what other people are seeing. I leave space for that. And like, whatever. Like, maybe I'm taking a big L."
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments came just hours after Trump officially accepted his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention and days after he announced Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) as his running mate.