Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is demanding that the nation’s leading artificial intelligence companies immediately pause development, warning that Congress will intervene if they refuse to slow down.
Sanders sent a <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/AI-Pause-Letter-FINAL.pdf">letter</a> Monday to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, arguing that recent incidents in which companies lost control of AI models, along with researchers&#8217; use of AI to create new viruses, show that the technology has reached a dangerous threshold. 
“Mr. Altman, Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development,” Sanders wrote. “It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control.”
“Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will,” he concluded.
Sanders pointed to recent disclosures involving OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta in which AI models acted outside their intended parameters, including instances in which models hacked into other companies’ computer systems. 
He also cited a recent study in which researchers used AI to create <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ai-just-created-viruses-never-before-seen-on-earth">new viruses</a>, warning that the technology in the wrong hands could be used to develop bioweapons capable of killing “tens of millions of people.”
“These technology leaders recently called for the international community to create a safety mechanism — a pause button — to avoid catastrophe,” Sanders wrote. “And yet, at a moment when we have seen human loss of control and the creation of potentially dangerous viruses, your companies are still racing ahead.”
Sanders argued that the companies are violating their own previous commitments to halt or slow development if their systems become too dangerous to control. 
Anthropic previously said it would “commit to pause the scaling and/or delay the deployment of new models” if its ability to scale AI outpaced its ability to comply with its safety procedures — a statement it withdrew in February. Meta said in 2025 that it would stop development if a frontier AI system reached a critical risk threshold that could not be mitigated.
OpenAI similarly pledged to halt further development if AI capabilities reached a “critical” threshold until adequate safeguards were implemented. 
“That moment is here,” Sanders argued. “AI capabilities HAVE reached a critical threshold.”
His demand comes as some of the people developing the world&#8217;s most advanced AI systems are themselves calling for mechanisms to slow the technology if its development begins moving too quickly.
More than 1,100 employees at companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google signed a statement last month urging the United States to back an international effort to build the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace frontier AI development.
OpenAI also <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/07/openai-astra-model-delay-cybersecurity-risks">announced</a> last week that it was slowing the release of its new Astra model after concerns about its cybersecurity capabilities.
Sanders has previously pushed for a moratorium on AI data center construction, arguing that the government needs time to establish stronger safeguards around the technology. He <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-ocasio-cortez-announce-ai-data-center-moratorium-act/">introduced legislation</a> with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) earlier this year that would pause construction of new AI data centers until federal safeguards were established.
 His latest demand would go substantially further, targeting the development of the AI models themselves.
The push also puts Sanders at odds with the Trump administration&#8217;s broader approach to AI, which has emphasized maintaining American technology leadership and competing with China.
Sanders did not specify what congressional action he and other senators would pursue if the companies refuse to pause development.
For now, Sanders is putting the industry on notice: He wants the companies to stop developing increasingly powerful AI systems — or he says Congress will do it for them.

New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Holds Election Rally With Bernie Sanders And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Bernie Sanders Demands Companies ‘Pause AI Development’ ‘In The Interest Of Humanity’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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“This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” said Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) about her decision to freeze her eggs, a process she recently chose to livestream on her Instagram account. She went so far as to post a video of herself injecting fertility medications in a green room before going on ABC News’ “This Week” and formally announcing her decision on the show.
The idea that egg freezing allows women to gain more control over their lives is popular, and it&#8217;s certainly a comfort to many women who feel they aren&#8217;t ready for motherhood but don&#8217;t want to forgo that potential. However, for many women that sense of control is at least in part an illusion.
The process for freezing eggs is invasive — involving not only the injections that AOC showed herself taking (which are also often taken by women who are trying to conceive naturally), but an additional surgery for the egg retrieval itself, which can cause <a href="https://jfredrickson.com/how-much-money-did-my-unborn-child-make-you/">severe side effects</a> in extreme cases. <a href="https://www.fertstert.org/action/showPdf?pii=S0015-0282%2824%2900593-4">Only around 11% of patients</a> use their eggs within seven years, implying that most women who freeze their eggs either conceive naturally or choose not to have children at all. Of those who do use their frozen eggs, only around 29% report a live birth from egg freezing across all patients (although patients who are younger in age or have more frozen eggs have much higher success rates). That’s not even taking into consideration the financial cost of the procedure and the additional cost of the storage on top of that — <a href="https://www.fertilityiq.com/fertilityiq/articles/the-costs-of-egg-freezing">usually around</a> $15,000-20,000 upfront for the initial storage, and then $500-1000 annually after that so long as a woman chooses to keep her eggs frozen.
Is that physical and financial toll worth it for the cancer patient who wants to preserve her fertility? Or the woman who has lifelong medical issues that make natural conception difficult anyway? Without a doubt. But when it comes to the average, otherwise healthy woman who thinks this is a way to kick the can down the road indefinitely — maybe because she’s still waiting for the right man, maybe because she isn’t sure if she wants kids now but thinks she might at some point in the future — the calculus shifts: Egg freezing might still be the right individual decision for her (ultimately, only each individual woman can make that decision for herself), but it’s less of an obvious answer. That’s why it’s so important for those who have platforms to be honest about what egg freezing is — and what it isn’t.
This is what AOC claimed she was doing, <a href="https://abcnews.com/Politics/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-opens-decision-freeze-eggs/story?id=135496654">telling</a> ABC News, “In this political environment where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy, I think it&#8217;s important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes, especially for working women across the country and normalize them.”
Well, maybe egg freezing is truly a political decision for her. That shouldn’t be surprising in her case: She’s one of the 535 most powerful people in the country, and even among them is one of the handful of congresspeople who’s a household name. Whether you love her or can’t stand her, you have to admit she’s great at social media and getting her name everywhere. There’s a good chance she might want to run for her party’s nomination in 2028, seeing that she is, for the first time, old enough to run, at 36 today and 39 by Inauguration Day 2029.
That is clearly a unique position to be in, and one that likely no other person in American political history has occupied: to be a woman who’s young enough to have children but old enough to be president, and politically accomplished enough that it wouldn’t be that out of the blue if she managed to pull off a win. Crazier things have happened.
Beyond that, she’s been in a relationship with her college sweetheart for around 15 years and engaged to him for over four years. It would be impolite to speculate as to why they haven’t gotten married yet or had children yet, but, hey, we can shrug and say: Elites, they’re not like the rest of us.
And yet that&#8217;s exactly the issue here. AOC claimed to be speaking to &#8220;working women&#8221; by posting her egg-freezing journey online, but she&#8217;s too far removed from their day-to-day concerns to grasp how unique her situation is, despite feigning &#8220;relatability.” The truth is, the average 36-year-old with a fiancé she&#8217;s dated for nearly half her life and been engaged to for four years is not a famous congresswoman eyeing a presidential bid, but is very likely a woman in a dead-end relationship who might be feeling more immediate desperation to start a family. Maybe she&#8217;d benefit from freezing her eggs, maybe not, but independent of that choice, the biggest question facing her is whether or not her fiancé will marry her and have kids with her now, or whether she’ll cut him loose and find someone who will.
In other words, AOC is pushing a luxury belief: the lifestyle she’s promoting of endless, timeless choice — even as pregnancy statistically becomes more and more difficult for the average woman with age, especially for those who are financially constrained and can only afford so many cycles of IVF — is not going to work for most normal women, whose preferences are necessarily shaped by the fact that they, unlike AOC, are not rich and famous and powerful. 
Here’s one place where AOC could use her position in society to help ordinary women who are desperately seeking IVF: The Trump administration has championed IVF accessibility, with a particular focus on lowering costs of commonly prescribed fertility medications through TrumpRx. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services even <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/profile/after-two-ectopic-pregnancies-ivf-gave-this-oklahoma-woman-the-family-she-thought-she-had-lost/">estimate</a> savings of up to $2,200 per cycle on medication, which is a huge amount in savings for hardworking couples trying to expand their families. Rather than pretending that the Trump administration has been uniquely against IVF and other fertility treatments, AOC could reach out across the aisle and help the women she claims to champion.
Let’s hope she puts aside partisan politics and gets to work instead of posting stories on Instagram so more Americans can have the babies they want. And let’s also hope things work out for her and she can have the babies she wants, too.
***
Neeraja Deshpande is a policy analyst at <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/">Independent Women</a>.
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AOC Is Selling Women A Dream That Comes With A Brutal Reality

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The protean and openly conservative actor James Woods, whose award-winning career has included multiple memorable performances, unloaded a brutal salvo at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) after the radical Squad leader tried to laugh off her &#8220;crazy&#8221; woke past like a bad fashion trend.
The fiery Hollywood veteran ripped the socialist congresswoman on X after she skipped onto ABC’s &#8220;This Week&#8221; and attempted to scrub her radical record. Cornered over extreme Left-wing proposals such as abolishing prisons and axing Thanksgiving, Ocasio-Cortez giggled away her <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/09/aoc-defund-the-police-slogan-should-not-be-repackaged-to-make-it-palatable-for-affluent-white-people/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">past support</a> for issues such as defunding the police, brushing off the outrage, saying, “I have a local city councilman that has this saying, &#8216;Woke 1 was crazy,&#8217; and I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.&#8221;
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) immediately torched AOC’s sudden pivot, warning the Bronx Democrat that she can&#8217;t just shove radical leftism down voters&#8217; throats and laugh it off when the politics get tough.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I wonder why <a href="https://x.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a> suddenly wants to walk back her calls to defund the police.
You don’t get to shove radical leftism down Americans’ throats, then laugh it off when it no longer serves your political interests. She can’t hide from her socialist record.<a href="https://t.co/G98FckYC8I">https://t.co/G98FckYC8I</a>
&mdash; Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) <a href="https://x.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/2086798794386264417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Then came Woods, dropping a bunker-buster on AOC&#8217;s die-hard supporters:
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1154847 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074439.639-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074439.639-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074439.639-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074439.639-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074439.639.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></div>
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It’s far from the first time Woods has taken an axe to Ocasio-Cortez’s ego. Back in 2019, she gleefully tweeted that she and her compatriots were &#8220;in charge.&#8221; Woods fired back with a fusillade reducing Ocasio-Cortez’s claim to rubble, pointing out some basic facts of what it means to be an American, and even more specifically, a political representative in Congress. Just for good measure, he gave her a brief history lesson, quipping, “If you ever learn to read, look it up.”
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1154849 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074614.908-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074614.908-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074614.908-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074614.908-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-11T074614.908.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></div>
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Ocasio-Cortez set herself up by tweeting, “Yup. If you don’t like the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreenNewDeal?src=hash">#GreenNewDeal</a>, then come up with your own ambitious, on-scale proposal to address the global climate crisis. Until then, we’re in charge — and you’re just shouting from the cheap seats.”
Woods shot back, “So, you may have missed this, but the way it works in America is YOU work for US. The last time somebody told Americans to sit down and shut up was 1776. If you ever learn to read, look it up. You are not only [an] idiot, you’re an arrogant idiot, and there is nothing more dangerous.”
Woods&#8217; career has included his mesmerizing Emmy-award performances in &#8220;Promise&#8221; and &#8220;My Name Is Bill W.&#8221; — along with his Oscar-nominated performances in &#8220;Salvador&#8221; and &#8220;Ghosts of Mississippi.&#8221; Other standout performances include &#8220;The Onion Field,&#8221; &#8220;Holocaust,&#8221; &#8220;Once Upon A Time In America,&#8221; &#8220;Citizen Cohn,&#8221; and &#8220;Nixon.&#8221;

James Woods

James Woods Unleashes Ferocious Mockery Of AOC’s ‘Useful Idiots’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) plans to freeze her eggs reignited questions over the weekend as to why she has yet to tie the knot with her longtime boyfriend despite being engaged since 2022.
The New York socialist and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate previously <a href="https://www.congress.gov/119/crpt/hrpt219/CRPT-119hrpt219.pdf">faced criticism</a> from the House Ethics Committee for describing partner Riley Roberts as her “spouse” while not being married. As Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter Andrew Kerr <a href="https://x.com/AndrewKerrNC/status/2086616392715964815?s=46&amp;t=o-U3qwC25WnWaylJ0oeG7Q">noted</a> Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez does not have to disclose Roberts&#8217; financial interests as long as they are not legally married.
“Roberts is immune from AOC’s own bills that would ban the spouses of members of Congress from trading stocks … so long as they remain unmarried,” Kerr wrote on X. “No mystery why she’ll never tie the knot with this guy while she serves in Congress.”
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“Why isnt AOC married after being engaged to Riley Roberts after 4+ years?”
She’s hiding his finances from the public. That’s why.
So long as they remain legally unmarried, Roberts’ stock trades remain secret.<a href="https://t.co/msI60HK7XT">https://t.co/msI60HK7XT</a>
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) <a href="https://x.com/AndrewKerrNC/status/2086616392715964815?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
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AOC, who has positioned herself as an ethics-minded congressional crusader, introduced a bill in January 2025 that would ban individual stock trading for members of Congress and their spouses or dependents. The proposal does not mention partners or longtime romantic interests.
Still, the Bronx-based socialist has faced her own ethics problems in recent years. The House Ethics Committee found that she improperly accepted a free ticket for Roberts to the 2021 Met Gala, and that she did not pay fair market value to rent the “Tax the Rich” dress she wore to the event.
The committee “found that she failed to fully comply with the Gift Rule by impermissibly accepting a gift of free admission to the 2021 Met Gala for her partner and by failing to pay full fair market value for some of the items worn to the event.”
At the same time, investigators noted that she inconsistently referred to Roberts as her spouse depending on the situation, a footnote <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/house-ethics-committee-aoc-is-manipulating-rules-to-shield-her-spouses-financial-affairs-from-the-public/">first flagged</a> by the Washington Free Beacon. AOC listed Roberts as her spouse for multiple overseas trips — despite the fact that they have not yet married — but did not list him as her spouse when disclosing her financial information.
“The committee also found evidence that Representative Ocasio-Cortez listed Mr. Roberts as her ‘spouse’ on paperwork filed with the House relating to privately sponsored travel, although the two were not legally married at the time of the gifted travel,” lawmakers found.
“The committee further notes that at the same time Representative Ocasio-Cortez was seeking to take advantage of exceptions to the Gift Rule only applicable to spouses and/or certain relatives, she was not disclosing Mr. Roberts’ financial interests as is required of Members who are legally married,” they added.
These questions about her personal life again swirled over the weekend after she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-freezes-her-eggs-after-telling-others-to-question-having-kids?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=AOC+Freezes+Her+Eggs+After+Telling+Others+To+Question+Having+Kids">released</a> a series of Instagram videos on Sunday showing her taking the first steps to freeze her eggs.
“Normally, I keep my private life quite private. But I have made the decision to freeze my eggs. And I want to share this because I was weighing it for a very long time, and there isn’t a ton out there, and it can feel very daunting,” she said. “I am aware there is, very strangely, a political ‘risk’ or ‘tax’ that could come with sharing this information.”
AOC’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed Holds Rally In Detroit With Sen. Bernie Sanders And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Is AOC Skipping Marriage To Hide Cash While She’s In Congress?

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Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joked that her and other socialist politicians&#8217; calls to ‘defund the police’ were just a “crazy, Woke 1” era.
&#8220;I have a local city councilman that has this saying, &#8216;Woke 1 was crazy,'&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFwAnMLBSOw">said</a> in an interview with ABC. “What’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.&#8221;
ABC News host Jon Karl had asked the congresswoman about the latest socialist backtrack, involving Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong and her comments that called for prisons to be abolished and for Thanksgiving to be canceled.
The radical statements from the Left’s self-proclaimed “Woke 1” era ranged from calls to &#8220;defund the police&#8221; to declarations like &#8220;no one is illegal on stolen land,&#8221; &#8220;homeownership is a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-landlords-blast-mamdani-official-who-calls-property-ownership-weapon-of-white-supremacy">weapon</a> of white supremacy,&#8221; and “all <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Vox/videos/i-still-believe-that-all-deportations-are-wrongnew-york-congressional-candidate-/4441164026124427/">deportations</a> are wrong.”
Ocasio-Cortez explained that those statements led to &#8220;fruitful&#8221; conversations. “I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful,&#8221; she said.
She tried to put some distance on that line of thinking, however, claiming that rhetoric is not the rhetoric used today. “I think that when we talk about crime today, it’s fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime in bringing crime down, right? And I think that we all share the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible. I think that during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”
So far, past radical comments have not stopped self-described democratic socialists — many of whom do still embrace the rhetoric Ocasio-Cortez appears ready to abandon — from winning primaries and advancing to the general election. In New York City, democratic socialists Darializa Chevalier and Claire Valdez swept their primaries and defeated incumbent establishment Democrats, Melat Kiros won in Colorado, and Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan.
Their success may not stop at the primaries. Prediction market Kalshi currently forecasts a Chevalier win in the general election at <a href="https://kalshi.com/tag/new-york-elections">98%</a>, a Valdez victory at 76%, a Kiros win at 97%, and an El-Sayed win at 55%. Increasingly, more and more Americans hold a positive view of socialism — with nearly <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/694835/image-capitalism-slips.aspx">40%</a> reporting they have a positive view of socialism.
Democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani proved in his 2025 election that radical statements can be successfully walked back before a general election. Mamdani had previously <a href="https://apnews.com/article/59f6a66cd40d4c2b750fdfd06a4f5da1?utm_source=chatgpt.com">advocated</a> for seizing the means of production, refused to condemn globalizing the intifada, and had described the New York City Police Department as a &#8220;racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to public safety.&#8221;
The thirty-four-year-old mayor <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/zohran-mamdani-fox-news-interview/6405385/">chalked</a> up his comments to his own emotional reaction to &#8220;the year George Floyd was killed,&#8221; saying that at the time &#8220;it felt like safety and justice had never been further apart.&#8221;
Mamdani&#8217;s win proved socialism could win a major election in the United States. And while socialism’s popularity is on the rise, capitalism’s popularity has declined, dropping 6% since 2021 to just over half — <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/694835/image-capitalism-slips.aspx">54%</a> — of Americans viewing capitalism in a favorable light.

AOC Has An Excuse For The Left’s Most Radical ‘Woke 1’ Era

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Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) announced Saturday that she is freezing her eggs and filmed herself injecting hormones into her stomach, describing the decision as a “privileged” opportunity to gain more control over how she balances her personal and political life.
&#8220;Normally, I keep my private life quite private. But I have made the decision to freeze my eggs. And I want to share this because I was weighing it for a very long time, and there isn&#8217;t a ton out there, and it can feel very daunting,&#8221; the <a href="https://x.com/ABCPolitics/status/2086456076501938580?s=20">potential 2028 presidential contender</a> said. &#8220;I am aware there is, very strangely, a political &#8216;risk&#8217; or &#8216;tax&#8217; that could come with sharing this information.” 
In a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/aoc/">series of Instagram posts</a>, the 36-year-old, who is childless, described to her millions of followers the “reflective mood” she has been in recently and the pressures that ultimately led to her decision.
“There&#8217;s also this flip side where you have to then grow up in the public eye, in a time that most people usually get to grow more privately,” she lamented. “And when you get elected later in life, you&#8217;ve made all of your mistakes in private. You&#8217;ve learned. You&#8217;ve grown in private. But when you get elected in public, and when you&#8217;re young, you have to do all of that in public.”
In one video, the self-described Democratic socialist is seen unboxing the medication, lifting her shirt, and injecting herself in the stomach as she begins the egg retrieval process. “Don’t be weird about this, even though I know all of you will be,” she told the camera before administering the shot. 
AOC, who was first elected to Congress at age 29, said she is documenting her fertility journey to help educate women about what she described as a lack of awareness surrounding women’s health, including puberty, pregnancy, and menopause.
On the fertility front, it’s a notable shift in tone for the Bronx leftist, who has long championed feminist causes, including abortion-on-demand, while previously telling young people to reconsider having children because of climate change.
“Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don’t turn this ship around, and so it’s basically like, there’s a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ocasio-cortez-people-maybe-shouldnt-reproduce-due-ryan-saavedra">February 2019 Instagram live video</a>. “And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, ‘Is it okay to still have children?&#8217;”
A woman’s fertility is closely tied to the number and quality of eggs in her ovaries, with age playing a major role in egg quality. Research has found that fertility declines significantly with age, with women in their mid-30s generally having lower chances of conceiving than women in their 20s, according to <a href="https://www.trianglen.dk/en/about-fertility/female-infertility/egg-quality-and-female-age">Trianglen Fertility Clinic</a>. By the late 30s, fertility declines further, and after 41 years, the egg quality declines rapidly.
For AOC, the biological clock is ticking — and she knows it.
“I feel empowered to make this choice. I think it&#8217;s a very privileged position that I&#8217;ve been able to make, and it&#8217;s also a result of, I think, changes in technology that have also made it more financially accessible,” she said. “This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life.”

Bicameral Democrats Call For Civilian Climate Corps To Be Included In Reconciliation Process

AOC Freezes Her Eggs After Telling Others To Question Having Kids

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Moderate Democrats are bracing for &#8220;the next war&#8221; inside the party.
Jonathan Cowan, president of the group Third Way, said his organization is launching a $15 million effort running through 2028 to discredit democratic socialism, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/us/politics/democratic-party-socialists-moderates.html">reported</a> on Thursday. 
“We are preparing for the next war that is coming,” Cowan said. 
The money will fund opposition research on the Democratic Socialists of America, polling, social media programs, and work to educate Democratic activists and leaders. 
The push gained urgency after Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow win in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. Polls before the election had pointed to a blowout. Instead, the leftist barely edged out the establishment&#8217;s pick, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), in a swing state that will also host an early presidential primary in 2028. 
Democrats had hoped to keep such wins limited to more liberal areas. El-Sayed’s nomination raised concerns that a progressive could take the party’s presidential nomination and then lose the general election.
“It is deeply troubling to see radical, far-Left candidates winning in places that are potentially presidential swing states,” Cowan told the Times.
Party leaders including Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and former Vice President Kamala Harris quickly backed El-Sayed after his primary victory.
Cowan criticized candidates who court Democratic Socialists of America organizers and energy while staying distant enough to avoid the formal label, a move he called the “DSA dodge.”
The next test for the Democratic Party comes next week. In Wisconsin, democratic socialist state Assemblywoman Francesca Hong has emerged as the party&#8217;s frontrunner for governor in another battleground state. The primary is August 11.
Moderate Democrats say the goal of their anti-socialist effort is to pinpoint radical parts of the official DSA platform, including defunding the Department of War, abolishing the police and prison system, reparations, and a 32-hour workweek. 
Liam Kerr, co-founder of the Welcome PAC, argued the far-Left has, so far, gained outsider energy and attention without the full weight of those positions.
Not every leftist won this week. Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) lost badly in her bid to reclaim her seat. But socialist wins have stacked up, including in primaries in New York, Colorado, and now, Michigan. In Detroit, State Rep. Donavan McKinney’s primary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/first-u-s-city-on-track-for-all-dsa-house-delegation?author=Leona+Salinas&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=First+U.S.+City+On+Track+For+All-DSA+House+Delegation&amp;trueLinkId=4d2V2zBlcQS1zDhX%2BwNpOBGRnqtp4hQ7WnYsK1Zu5oBepBe6k7mV0DR2RcVplB7zmG8llYrWfwJOk5%2BeUFsWPg%3D%3D&amp;trueLinkTs=1782495158&amp;trueLinkExpiry=43200">victory</a> over incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar puts the city on track to have both House seats held by democratic socialists if he wins in November, joining Rep. Rashida Tlaib. 
El-Sayed campaigned with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and made opposition to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) central to his race. 
Maurice Mitchell of the leftist Working Families Party, who campaigned in Michigan, rejected moderate Democrats&#8217; response to the rise of socialist candidates. 
“They’re missing the plot,” he said of the moderate Democrats, adding, “There is a populist insurgency taking place in this country.”

How Some Dems Are ‘Preparing For The Next War’ Against Socialists

2026 elections

2026 Midterms

Abdul El-Sayed

Democrat

Democratic socialists

Francesca Hong

Michigan Primary

Wisconsin

Innovation is a good thing, so naturally, the Left is very much against it.
The Left wishes to freeze the economy, shrink the economy, and redistribute everything. Last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tried to make the case that we should oppose data centers because they&#8217;re making people sick.
Making people sick? Based on what?
“There&#8217;s no control over the radiation that&#8217;s happening here. But what we see is that these plants produce that ash, and then they have to do something,” she bloviated. “All they&#8217;re trying to do is dump it places. Where do they dump it in places? Rural areas, poor areas, disenfranchised areas, black and brown areas.”
“Meanwhile, all these folks are getting sick,” she continued. “Guarantee you we&#8217;ve got a high Medicaid population over here. And so now they they&#8217;re profiting off of all of this, and they don&#8217;t have to pitch into the cost at all for the health care burdens that they&#8217;re —&#8221;
Does she have a single bit of evidence that data centers are making people sick? Does she have one iota of evidence about this?
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-2471?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Of course not.
The idea that they are disproportionately dumping data centers in black and brown areas is nuts. They&#8217;re putting data centers in proximity to areas where people can work on the AI, and you think they&#8217;re just going to build the data center in the middle of midtown Manhattan or something similar?
Let us look at a map on how we use our land, because we&#8217;re being told that all of our precious farmland is being eaten by the data centers. A map of the United States where each square represents roughly one million acres shows nearly the entire map is either pasture and range, cropland, or forest. There are a few special use areas and diminishingly small urban areas. The vast majority of America is population-empty. Based on the <a href="https://blog.andymasley.com/p/data-center-land-use-issues-are-fake">analysis</a> of data analyst Andy Masley, by 2028, data centers will take up exactly how many squares of the map?
3.5 squares.
According to Masley, by 2030, data center buildings will take up 1/15 of the land we use to grow Christmas trees in America. That’s roughly 0.3% of the land that we use for prime farmland.
This is just silly. The catastrophism is designed to kill the innovation. The point is not to save our precious farmland. The point is to destroy the innovation. That&#8217;s what this is all about.
Elon Musk was pointing this out. He was speaking with Zanny Beddoes of The Economist about a wide variety of issues, and he pointed out that the socialistic redistribution scheme is nonsense, and so is the envy that suggests that he isn&#8217;t paying his taxes.
“For my stock options, I pay 40% income tax on a national basis,” he revealed. “And then because I spend about 30% of my time in California, I pay another sort of roughly a third of the California state taxes, which is now around 15%. So I pay about 45% in taxes, just so people know this &#8230; it&#8217;s quite roughly half. And then when I die, there&#8217;ll be another sort of 45%, roughly half, that will be taxed. So at the end of the day, I&#8217;ll have a quarter of what I have.”
She then went after him and said people really, really hate him, clucking, “But do you see why this makes people think that this man who has all this power, he&#8217;s the world&#8217;s richest man, he thinks he has a right to influence our politics. We started this conversation saying superlatives. It&#8217;s why people loathe you. I mean, some people do loathe you.”
“Yes, some people do,” he responded.
“But do you understand why?” she continued. “Do you think what you&#8217;re doing is helpful for Western democracies?”
“Maybe some people do loathe me,” he answered. “That&#8217;s probably true. I don&#8217;t care. But the fact that, as you pointed out, a quarter billion people follow me is that I think a lot more people actually like me than don&#8217;t. And I think a lot more people hate you and the media more than you realize.”
He is not wrong.
This is one of the points that is worth making. It turns out that normie, rational Americans like things like free markets and American strength. We do.
That&#8217;s why the DSA program and those who subscribe to it, like Ocasio-Cortez, are too online.
Innovation is a hallmark of America.
We cannot let them hinder it.

lightbulb_america

The Plot To Cripple America’s Future

Andy Masley

Ben Shapiro

Data Centers

Elon Musk

Opinion

Republicans appear to support a bipartisan bill led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), but the legislation remains stalled amid reported concerns that giving the Democratic socialist a legislative victory could fuel her presidential ambitions.  
<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1837/text">The DEFIANCE Act</a> (Disrupt Explicit Forged Images And Non-Consensual Edits Act) would create a federal civil cause of action allowing victims of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes to sue those who create or distribute fake nude or sexual images without their consent. 
Under the bill, victims could recover up to $250,000 in damages in cases involving sexual assault, stalking, or harassment, earning support from leftists, conservative Republicans, and Hollywood figures such as Paris Hilton.
AOC first introduced the legislation last year. In January, the U.S. Senate passed it unanimously.
“I want to thank the Senate cosponsors of this legislation, including my Republican co-lead, Senator Lindsey Graham,” Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) <a href="https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-successfully-passes-bill-to-combat-nonconsensual-sexually-explicit-deepfake-images">said</a> at the time. “Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez herself is a publicly confessed victim of explicit deepfakes. I commend her for working to create tools for victims in the fight against this despicable crime.” 
Despite bipartisan support, the bill remains stalled in the Republican-led House. <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2026/07/23/paris-hilton-and-the-politics-of-defiance-01009283?nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=5c65d8fa-b7c7-44e5-98d0-43e6086e71cd">Politico reported</a> Thursday that some Republicans worry passing AOC&#8217;s legislation could hand the New York congresswoman a political victory as she emerges as a potential 2028 presidential contender. 
“It’s a shame that this bill isn’t law because they are unwilling to give AOC a win,” one person working on the bill told the outlet. “When you look at it, everything is aligned for it to pass, except that they don’t want her to have this.”
“We’re depriving many, many people of the ability to set their lives right just to prevent one member of Congress from being able to pass a bill,” another person said, according to Politico. 
Ocasio-Cortez has blamed the delay on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Earlier this month,<a href="https://x.com/EricMGarcia/status/2077191769477791989?s=20"> she told The Independent</a> that the bill passed the Senate unanimously with Republican support, adding that people should &#8220;ask Jim Jordan&#8221; why it has yet to advance.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters Tuesday that he supports the legislation but was unsure of its status in committee, according to Politico. 
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-melania-backed-bill-to-fight-deepfake-revenge-porn">TAKE IT DOWN Act</a>, championed by first lady Melania Trump, into law. The measure criminalizes the non-consensual online distribution of intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes.
The impasse comes days after a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-2028-poll-just-shook-up-both-parties?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=A+New+2028+Poll+Just+Shook+Up+Both+Parties">New Hampshire primary poll</a> signaled an early shake-up in the 2028 Democratic presidential race, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) leading the field.
The Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, shows the Democratic socialist leading the hypothetical Democratic field with 22% support, narrowly ahead of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at 21%. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) placed third with 9%. 
“You know polls are polls, and a horse race is a horse race,” AOC <a href="https://x.com/EricMGarcia/status/2080038582211821579?s=20">said</a> in response. “I am, of course, I think very deeply humbled and grateful to you know folks who participate and convey that confidence.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
👀👀👀 AOC on a poll showing her leading in a 2028 primary in New Hampshire:
&#8220;One is that you know polls are polls, and a horse race is a horse race. I am, of course, I think very deeply humbled and grateful to you know folks who participate and convey that confidence.&#8221;
&#8220;I… <a href="https://t.co/fSXAOC0AGO">pic.twitter.com/fSXAOC0AGO</a>
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) <a href="https://x.com/EricMGarcia/status/2080038582211821579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2026</a></blockquote>

Congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar, And Pressley Hold News Conference After President Trump Attacks Them On Twitter

Republicans Love This AOC-Led Bill, But They Don’t Want To Pass It

bipartisanship

Deepfakes

Dick Durbin

Donald Trump

Jim Jordan

Lindsey Graham

Melania Trump

Mike Johnson

Politico

Republicans

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
***
On Sunday, the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Committee (NPC), the organization’s <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/democratic-socialists-of-america-workers-deserve-more">board of directors</a>, convened to decide how the DSA would endorse a presidential candidate in 2028. After debating what one member called “the most contentious item that we’ve had all year,” the meeting ended without resolution.
The source of the disagreement? Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Many members see Ocasio-Cortez, who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/09/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-presidential-run">hasn’t ruled out</a> a presidential run in 2028, as the DSA’s most likely endorsement. Others, viewing her as milquetoast and beyond DSA’s control, hope that greater participation from the broader membership can avert that outcome.
<a href="https://manhattan.institute/subscribe?utm_source=DailyWire&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=reihan">Click here for more Manhattan Institute content.</a> 
The debate revealed a split over how electorally respectable the DSA needs to be — and how much influence its most extreme members should hold. It also exposed a contradiction at the heart of the organization: despite its <a href="https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/issues/2023-dsa-national-convention-discussion/how-marxists-fight-the-right">claim</a> to being champions of democracy, the organization’s core cadre deliberately structured discussion of the endorsement process to sideline the broader membership.
Ahead of Sunday’s meeting, DSA’s various caucuses began releasing <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DaqeQLJlB8r/?img_index=1">statements</a> and promotional <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Dagp7OyRdFE">materials</a> outlining their positions on the proposed <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M7sby9E_UlZWwTWbgiq1rQMhAbL9lnJL2cdF6ap57zY/edit?tab=t.0">process</a> for endorsing a presidential nominee. The <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M7sby9E_UlZWwTWbgiq1rQMhAbL9lnJL2cdF6ap57zY/edit?tab=t.0">original proposal</a> called for a non-binding, all-member poll, with the NPC ultimately deciding which presidential candidate DSA endorses.
Some members raised concerns that the proposal — introduced by the DSA’s Presidential Exploratory Committee, which includes representatives from multiple DSA caucuses — effectively left the final endorsement decision in the hands of the NPC. Two of the communist caucuses, Springs of Revolution and Marxist Unity Group, argued that delegates at the DSA’s 2027 National Convention should instead be the ones steering the endorsement process.
At the Sunday meeting, the DSA’s more moderate wing, led by groups such as Groundwork and Socialist Majority Caucus (SMC), argued that every member should have a voice in the decision, with Groundwork’s Kareem Elrefai calling it “the biggest decision this organization has ever made.” But they agreed that the ultimate nomination decision should be resolved by the NPC ahead of the 2027 DSA Convention.
Abdullaq Farooq, who is not part of a caucus, was more blunt about the question of power and strategy: “I think that the NPC has the right to decide who our presidential candidate should be and what that endorsement should look like, but I think that the all-member poll is just a really important way for us to engage as many people as possible in order for us to win a presidential campaign.” Farooq agreed with Groundwork and SMC that the poll was less about choosing a candidate and more about whether the DSA had the national power, capacity, and desire to pull off a presidential campaign.
The DSA’s more radical left wing disagreed with this approach. Springs of Revolution (SoR) and the Marxist Unity Group (MUG) <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ls5-szPBtx2Wruhp0OLkiBqKVipe1l1a0hKJSfGcogw/edit?tab=t.0">proposed</a> a two-part amendment that would shift the endorsement decision from the NPC to the broader membership. The first part eliminated the requirement to hold a national poll; MUG’s Cliff Connolly argued that an “internet email poll” was not a meaningful form of democracy, and that chapters should instead deliberate collectively. The second part removed the endorsement decision from the NPC, placing it instead with a special conference of elected convention delegates called the Presidential Strategy Conference. SoR <a href="https://sor4dsa.substack.com/p/let-convention-decide">argued</a> that this was far more democratic, because “[j]ust 14 votes are necessary to secure a simple majority on the NPC — 14 people with entrenched and long-standing opinions who will not be swayed by chapter discussions or member polls.”
The two amendments reflected SoR and MUG’s concern that there existed “a majority of NPC members who want to endorse [Ocasio-Cortez].” Trotskyist Sarah Milner from <a href="https://reformandrevolution.org/">Reform &amp; Revolution</a> (R&amp;R) offered the most candid assessment of the debate, acknowledging that “[e]veryone is going to propose a process that will favor their preferred position, their preferred outcome.”
Reflecting that concern, Milner <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/15IXB_1UNk3sPCMYtssPhHl5W9NaJCIYyfp_e0JQRo_I/edit?tab=t.0">introduced</a> an amendment to the first section of the SoR–MUG proposal restoring the all-member, nonbinding vote and <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CgjtvdVcFz83_6wwhfvs24Rgkcvw14ihW1ykvW2RNOs/edit?tab=t.w3ibfjqb4wyr#heading=h.kx9xl6p858ga">recognizing</a> that the 2025 DSA convention’s resolution of running a candidate on a strong labor platform was not realized. Her proposal was defeated by the SoR–MUG voters, but her comments clearly explained the source of the larger dispute.
“The base reso[lution] from [2025] convention called for a left labor coalition. That didn’t happen. It was premised around a kind of campaign that is not going to be run, and now we are confronted with a potential fait accompli AOC campaign,” Milner said. “I think that our membership is excited by the enormous possibilities a presidential campaign could offer but also understands full well the enormous complications and risks of a candidate like AOC.”
The first portion of the SoR and MUG amendment, on eliminating the requirement for a national poll, passed 15–8. But despite extending the meeting by an additional hour, the NPC was unable to debate the second part of the SoR and MUG amendment, due to the acrimony of the discussion. As a result, the NPC adopted a referral motion, kicking the unresolved portion of the amendment back to the Presidential Exploratory Committee.
The DSA’s inability to resolve even the meta-question of how it will pick a presidential endorsee speaks to broader division in the group.
“What happened [on Sunday] shows a deep dysfunction in the organization and much tension around process and internal democracy,” said Jake Altman, a former DSA member who has <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/dsa-democratic-party-left">become</a> a vocal critic of the organization’s extreme turn. “It was all a proxy battle around AOC. There’s a lot of animosity toward her among the far left of DSA. They want someone they can pressure and control. She’s too independent for them.”
Altman added that the fight over holding this vote at the convention boils down to DSA’s far Left believing that the only people entitled to vote are the activists — that is, “the cadre who are more radicalized and committed.”
Nor can anyone predict how a future vote will go. The convention of the Young Democratic Socialists of America — the DSA’s youth wing — could throw the entire process into further uncertainty if Bread &amp; Roses’s YDSA <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZI9uzKCQ4b/?img_index=1">slate</a> of Mae Bracelin and James Hernández wins. That would leave the more left-wing Bread &amp; Roses tied with the more-moderate Groundwork as the largest caucus on the NPC, potentially making it the decisive bloc in the endorsement fight.
As DSA’s swing caucus, Bread &amp; Roses often occupies a pivotal position in internal debates. Milner described Bread &amp; Roses as “confusing and sometimes contradictory” and warned that one caucus could effectively decide for the entire DSA whether the NPC would be permitted to make a presidential endorsement on behalf of the organization.“[I]f this passes [an amendment allowing the NPC to determine the endorsement] after YDSA convention, B&amp;R will hold the swing vote in this process and will be the ones who make the decision on how this endorsement goes most likely.”
Realistically, Sunday was only the opening skirmish in what will likely become a prolonged bout of factional infighting, hardened grievances, and lingering resentment. For the communist caucuses and the DSA’s broader far Left, a partial victory may ultimately prove pyrrhic. After this temporary setback, the forces determined to endorse Ocasio-Cortez now have more time to regroup, rally their troops, and keep the endorsement decision with the NPC.
***
This is republished with permission from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. The original can be found <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/democratic-socialists-of-america-presidential-candidate-aoc">here</a>.
<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/person/stu-smith">Stu Smith</a> is an investigative analyst at City Journal.

Will AOC Be The DSA’s Darling?

Democratic Socialists Of America

MI x DW

Leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are concentrating their efforts on getting another radical leftist elected — this time in Michigan for the U.S. Senate. 
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are scheduled to host rallies across Michigan for leftist Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed on July 18 and 19. El-Sayed is in the middle of what&#8217;s expected to be a close race for the party&#8217;s nomination against Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens.
El-Sayed is running his campaign much like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with a heavy social media presence and large appeal among Muslims and young leftists. 
For the Fourth of July, he made a music video in which he danced to a Taylor Swift song on the pop star&#8217;s wedding weekend. &#8220;Happy Taylor wedding…err, July 4th weekend!&#8221; El-Sayed wrote in the caption above the video.
In another video, he took the song &#8220;I want to dance with somebody” and changed the lyrics to “I want to vote for somebody” while listing out his attributes. Stevens called out El-Sayed for his posts, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/us/politics/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate-debate.html">arguing</a> that he’s more focused on his own publicity than the people of Michigan. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Happy Taylor wedding…err, July 4th weekend! <a href="https://t.co/1s1blnoY4P">pic.twitter.com/1s1blnoY4P</a>
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2073429685870968917?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
El-Sayed portrays himself as a physician despite <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/12/abdul-el-sayed-doctor-physician-00916389">not</a> being granted a medical license. Like democratic socialist candidates who have recently won Democratic primaries, El-Sayed is defending past radical statements he has made. 
In a 2020 radio interview, El-Sayed <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/abdul-el-sayed-repeatedly-called-210836248.html">said</a>, “We are in a moment where a lot of our public conversation gets chewed down into 280 characters or less … I believe that we do need to defund the police in so far as defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets.&#8221;
El-Sayed is currently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/07/politics/kfile-abdul-el-sayed-michigan-senate-defund-police-fact-check">defending</a> his remarks by saying he never called to defund the police. One year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, El-Sayed supported another lockdown in April 2021. He suggested businesses should be fined for trying to open their doors in the midst of the public health crisis.
His anti-Israel stance also sparked controversy last October when El-Sayed’s campaign sent a fundraising email on the anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel that made no mention of Hamas’ atrocities and blamed Israel for launching “a ground invasion of Gaza.” El-Sayed&#8217;s campaign later said the email was sent by mistake, but the leftist stood by the message in the email.
During his Senate campaign, he has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/im-not-a-socialist-michigans-mamdani-has-the-lefts-new-playbook-but-doesnt-want-the-new-label">called</a> for ICE to be abolished, while doubling down on his push for Medicare for all and tuition-free access to higher education. The Michigan primary is on August 4. 
Democratic-socialists have been on a recent tear, ousting decade-long Democratic incumbents in the primaries. In June, Democratic socialist Melat Kiros upset incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) in the primary for Colorado’s 1st congressional district. DeGette has served in Congress for longer than Kiros has been alive. 
In New York, three Mamdani-backed candidates swept their races. One of the candidates, Darializa Avila Chevalier, defeated incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat despite past anti-American social media posts such as “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
A Fourth of July poll from the Cato Institute revealed that socialism is on the rise, as 53% of Gen Z and 40% of Millennials have a favorable view of socialism and are taking their new ideals to the voting booth.

AOC and Bernie Sanders

Bernie And AOC Focus On Pushing Radical Leftist In Vital Swing State

Michigan

Senate

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is drawing renewed attention online after appearing at an Eid al-Adha celebration in New York City wearing a hijab alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Video from the Wednesday event in the Bronx — portions of which fall within Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional district — showed the congresswoman speaking onstage while wearing the Islamic head covering as Mamdani stood behind her in a kurta styled after an Arsenal soccer jersey.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="AOC wears hijab for Eid, one of Islam’s holiest holidays" width="422" height="750" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/55dSVypBSKo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The appearance quickly circulated online given Ocasio-Cortez’s status as one of the Democratic Party’s most outspoken leftist figures and self-described feminists in Congress.
Eid al-Adha is one of Islam’s holiest observances and commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. The holiday began this week and is being celebrated by Muslims worldwide through Friday.
Ocasio-Cortez has <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-abortion-ban-alabama-woman-sexuality-feminism-1426902">spent years warning</a> that women’s rights and personal freedoms are under threat in America, frequently attacking conservatives over what she characterizes as patriarchal politics and authoritarian social policies.
Mamdani, the country’s highest-profile Muslim politician, has continued generating controversy recently over his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdanis-latest-slap-in-the-face-to-jewish-voters?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Mamdani%E2%80%99s+Latest+Slap+In+The+Face+To+Jewish+Voters">anti-Israel</a> activism and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdani-wants-to-decide-who-deserves-to-keep-their-property?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Mamdani+Wants+To+Decide+Who+Deserves+To+Keep+Their+Property">socialist</a> political positions.
The event itself was aimed at outreach toward Muslim voters and communities in New York City, where both Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez maintain strong support among activists.
The clip of the two politicians at the Bronx celebration rapidly gained traction across social media platforms Wednesday evening, becoming the latest flashpoint in ongoing cultural and political fights surrounding identity, religion, and Democratic politics.

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