Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lashes out at Axios and Politico co-founder after he calls her 'the Donald Trump of the Democratic Party'
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Axios CEO Jim VandeHei on Monday for calling her "the Donald Trump of the Democratic Party."
- "Yikes. The CEO of a news media company is almost a *full year late* to one of the laziest takes of 2018," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about VandeHei.
- VandeHei argued during Axios' weekly HBO show that Ocasio-Cortez effectively ties "extremism and activism" together to create a parallel force on the left to Trump's right-wing populism and nationalism.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Axios CEO Jim VandeHei on Monday for calling her "the Donald Trump of the Democratic Party."
The freshman congresswoman called VandeHei's characterization "one of the laziest takes of 2018" and suggested the veteran reporter and Politico co-founder has made other political judgments she believes are misinformed.
"Yikes. The CEO of a news media company is almost a *full year late* to one of the laziest takes of 2018," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "Begs the question: what else is he behind on and wrong about?"
VandeHei made the comment during a Sunday episode of Axios' weekly HBO show.
"Two big strands in American politics are extremism and activism, and nobody ties them together more effectively than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," he argued. "She is the Donald Trump of the Democratic Party. People either love her or hate her, almost no one shrugs and feels ambivalent about her."
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He drew other parallels between Ocasio-Cortez's strain of progressive politics and the president's right-wing politics, and argued that neither politician represents most American voters.
"It's AOC on one side versus Trump and Bannon populism and nationalism on the other side, and America is getting squeezed in between," VandeHei said.
Others were quick to chime in, following Ocasio-Cortez's tweet.
"How much time you got?" Crooked Media founder Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, tweeted in response to Ocasio-Cortez's tweet.