Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is hard at work on the campaign trail, pounding the pavement for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — even appearing at a rally Sunday in Michigan, a must-win state for Sanders.
Saturday night, though, Ocasio-Cortez faced the wrath of Sanders’ online supporter army, the so-called “Bernie Bros” for lavishing tepid praise on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who signed off of her own presidential campaign with a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
Warren appeared in a digital short called “Flipping the Switch” where she traded placed with Kate McKinnon, who played the Massachusetts Senator in SNL’s skits roasting the 2020 Democratic primary candidates, in the show’s “cold open” segment.
𝗙𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵. pic.twitter.com/t8qHcGRUhY
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) March 8, 2020
The skit drew thousands of admirers, among them Ocasio-Cortez, who called the appearance, “legendary.”
ok this is legendary
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2020
That didn’t sit well with the Bernie Bros, who torched Ocasio-Cortez for “selling out” to Warren who hasn’t endorsed either Sanders or former Vice President Joe Biden, the two remaining candidates with a shot of snagging the Democratic nomination — a move many Bernie Sanders supporters believe is akin to progressive treason.
It got pretty brutal.
“No, please, don’t,” they began.
“Good god, Alexandria. Why?” they continued, suddenly referring to Ocasio-Cortez only by her first name, likely as a method of infantilizing the Congresswoman, in stark contrast to their stated dedication to equality.
“Delete this. Jesus Christ,” said the next commenter.
“[W]hat would’ve been legendary is had she done the bare minimum solidarity in this moment instead,” added another.
“Our planet is dying Alexandria. the extremely powerful white woman with $18 million dollars is actively choosing not to help. It’s not really that tight,” they went on. “Love to praise the backstabbing fake progressive who has smeared and attacked my friend and mentor for months to damage his campaign.”
Others derided Ocasio-Cortez for being “cringe,” and gave her the “side eye.” Others were left “smh,” or “shaking my head.”
At some point, cooler-headed leftists began to weigh in, trying to head off the Bernie Bro avalanche.
“The comments here are just so painful to watch,” one high-profile left-leaning Twitter user noted. “I dunno, at a very minimum, can you imagine why a sitting congresswoman is going to be complimentary to a sitting senator who is going to be her ally in passing vital legislation?”
The Bernie Bros, though, have continued their take-no-prisoners approach to “correcting” one of Sanders’ biggest supporters and an aggressive surroage for the Vermont socialist — if not the single largest motivating force for “Democratic socialists” in office.
Sanders has one major contest left, Michigan’s primary on Tuesday, to prove that he can stay in the nomination race. Sanders won the state in an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and if he doesn’t manage to eke out a win on Tuesday over Biden, Democrats orchestrating the 2020 presidential nomination process will be able to comfortably say that Sanders’ movement, while significant, isn’t enough to derail President Donald Trump’s re-election bid.
Ocasio-Cortez will join Sanders at a rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon, in a last ditch effort to help Sanders turn out the youth vote — a demographic he seems to draw in droves to his rallies but whose support hasn’t translated to the ballot box.