Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) criticized a potential Joe Biden presidential nomination in an extensive interview with Vogue, saying that Biden is not a pragmatic choice and his nomination would repeat the Democratic Party's mistakes of 2016.
On the precipice of the first Democratic presidential debate, Ocasio-Cortez addressed the 2020 Democratic primary. She outright rejected Biden's appeal as a centrist candidate. She took issue with the idea of a Biden nomination, saying that the nomination would "depress turnout."
"I think that he's not a pragmatic choice," she told Vogue. She compared a Biden nomination to Hillary Clinton's candidacy in 2016. "We picked the logically fitting candidate, but that candidate did not inspire the turnout that we needed," she said.
She also criticized reaching out to Trump voters. "That's my frustration with politics today, that they're willing to give up every single person in America just for that dude in a diner," she told the magazine. "Just so that you can get this very specific slice of Trump voters?" she continued later.
The Bronx representative is reaching her one-year anniversary of besting longtime Democratic mainstay Joe Crowley in her district's Democratic primary. Since her election, Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most outspoken young leaders in the Democratic Party.
Despite the strong criticism of Biden, Ocasio-Cortez declined to make a specific endorsement of a Democratic candidate so early in the primary.