Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggested on Thursday night that socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) lost the Michigan Democratic primary because the Democrats used “voter suppression.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who made the remarks during her first interview with Fox News, made the suggestion when asked by anchor Bret Baier about why she keeps saying that the far-left has a winning message when it is getting blown out all over the country.
“You did a campaign event at the University of Michigan, 10,000 people, it was rock star status, but those kids did not show up at least if you look at the numbers, just overall this race,” Baier said. “So, how can you say the progressive position is still prevailing nationwide when Joe Biden is winning so much?”
“Well, I think one thing that isn’t being talked about is that rampant voter suppression in this country,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “Right there in Ann Arbor where we had that rally, those kids were waiting three hours in line to vote in Michigan. And so, when we talk about who’s turning out and who’s not turning out, we absolutely —”
“So, just to be clear, you’re saying you think voters didn’t get to vote who wanted to vote in Michigan?” Baier pressed.
“Absolutely,” Ocasio-Cortez claimed. “Obviously, there’s more that we need to do in terms of turning out youth voters, it’s, uh, we need to make sure we are inspiring young people to turn out, but when you do turn out, you should not be waiting three, four, seven hours in order to vote and that causes people to leave.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion that Sanders lost in Michigan and performed poorly in Ann Arbor because of “voter suppression” is a direct attack on the Democrat-controlled state and local goverment.
Michigan’s state government is controlled by Democrats and elections are overseen by Democrat Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, whose job is “ensuring elections are secure and accessible.”
Ann Arbor is also controlled by Democrats.
WATCH:
.@AOC blames “rampant voter suppression” for Biden beating Sanders by 250,000 votes in Michigan pic.twitter.com/idqDyjBdGv
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 12, 2020
Earlier in the interview, Baier asked Ocasio-Cortez, “You are Bernie Sanders most prominent surrogate, was it difficult to witness his kind of swift fault from front runner status. He is almost a protest candidate now, your thoughts on that?”
“Well, I think one of the things that we saw with Bernie Sanders’s leadership, even today is how transformative it is for the American people. Just today he laid out a very strong plan in response to the Coronavirus for everyday people, for main street, not just Wall Street,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “He’s talking about, how do we make sure that everyone with access to Medicare could get it and that that Medicare is improved and expanded. How do we make sure people aren’t booted out of their homes whether it’s not being able to afford their mortgage payment this month or not being able to afford their rent payments?”
“But it does seem like Joe Biden is on his way to the nomination, are you worried he’s not going to be saying those things?” Baier pressed.
Ocasio-Cortez responded, “Well, you know, I think this part of our process is to make sure we come together, I think there’s going to be a real vigorous debate I believe on Sunday night if I’m not mistaken and part of that process means I think we will come together and I think Bernie Sanders has done a great job and is continuing to do a great job of pushing to make sure we have a party agenda that fights for working people.”