Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that she believes that President Joe Biden is the Democratic Party’s best option against former President Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
AOC made the remarks during a Sunday interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” when asked about why Biden is struggling in the polls against Trump despite Trump facing numerous legal issues.
“I think what we have right now, what we’ve seen in New Hampshire, he is virtually the nominee of the party. His turnout in New Hampshire is actually not something to ignore,” she said. “We saw, from a write-in campaign, remember, President Biden wasn’t even on the ballot in New Hampshire, he won overwhelmingly with turnout that even exceeded Obama 2012 turnout when Obama was on the ballot. And so, there are quite a few indicators in his strength in New Hampshire. We will see what happens in South Carolina and, of course, when we get to important primaries like Michigan.”
When asked directly if Biden was the party’s best option, AOC said, “Yes” that Biden was “the strongest nominee” the party could put forward.
“I think we can certainly do more to be advancing our vision,” AOC said. “And I believe that we have a strong vision that we can run on. You know I think – and – and for what it’s worth, the president has said, ‘If you give me the House, and if you give me the Senate and reelect me to the presidency, we will codify abortion rights and the right to choose in this country. We’ll codify reproductive rights.’ I think we can do more.”
“I think we – I think we need to be talking more about health care,” she continued. “Of course, me as a progressive, I want to see the age of Medicare drop, whether it’s to 50, as the president has discussed earlier, or to zero, as is my preference, to extend Medicare to all people in the United States of America. But I believe that we can be doing more. We can talk even more about the fact that public colleges and universities should be tuition free or reduced.”