By: Jared Evan
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has once again declined to rule out mounting a primary challenge to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the senior Democratic senator from her home state of New York, multiple outlets are reporting.
“I’m not playing coy or anything like that. I’m still very much in a place where I’m trying to decide what is the most effective thing, I can do to help our Congress, our [political] process, and our country actually address the issues of climate change, health care, wage inequality, etc.,” she told the new Washington-based publication Punchbowl in an interview published on Monday.
Chuck Schumer has held office in the senate since 1998 and in one of the rare instances where both the left and the right are tired of Senator Schumer, AOC has an interesting opportunity.
Schumer is known more for appearing on TV than actually passing or proposing any meaningful legislation. In 2016, Schumer burned bridges with Jewish Conservative support he had previously benefited from by going all in on Russia Gate and working relentlessly to destroy President Trump. Previously many NY Republicans would cross party lines for Schumer because of his pro-Israel stances.
In a 2016 Senate floor speech, Schumer called for a “impartial and independent” investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election, announcing that the Democrats had agreed to the following priorities: that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein not be able to appoint a special prosecutor for an investigation into Russia’s meddling; that Comey meet with the Senate; and that Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions meet separately with senators, The Hill reported.
Schumer became the public face of the Trump “witch hunt’.
By 2018, Schumer’s entire platform became “get Trump”. In January 2018, Schumer said since the Mueller investigation began, the United States “has had to endure conspiracy after conspiracy from the right wing, Republican congressmen, senators and of course the right-wing press, which acts in total cahoots” in regard to their views on the FBI and that Republican attempts to discredit Mueller “has now devolved into delusional, self-serving paranoia.”
With zero support remaining from Republicans and a rapidly fracturing Democrat party, AOC challenging the senior Senator, could become the political story of the next two years
The congresswoman indicated that it was complicated to say whether she believes Mr Schumer is doing a good job or not, although she suggested that she understands the difficult circumstances under which he has operated over the last four years as the minority leader.
“While I can’t stand anything AOC stands for, I think it would be wonderful if she challenged Schumer in the 2022primaries, Senators like Chuck think they are like TV personalities as opposed to civil servants, in 22 years of Chuck, I can’t name any important legislation he pushed, but he sure gets on every pundit show, like clockwork, and Russia gate was the end of my support for Chuck”, a Jewish Republican voter who formally supported Schumer told TJV news.
