US Politics
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Joe Lieberman ramps up feud with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Joe Lieberman ramps up feud with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Joe Lieberman doubled down on his suggestion that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not the future of the Democratic Party.

“She just takes us back to the big-spending, big-taxing Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party is not going to succeed that way,” Lieberman told Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Previously, Lieberman said that Ocasio-Cortez was too “different” and “controversial” and pointed out how the majority of the party is center-left.

Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described Democratic socialist, is one of the most liberal members of the new Congress.

Lieberman appeared on Fox Business last Thursday and told host Neil Cavuto, “With all respect, I certainly hope she’s not the future and I don’t believe she is.”

Reacting to Lieberman’s comments, the 29-year-old lawmaker tweeted: “New party, who dis?”

On Sunday, Lieberman called Ocasio-Cortez’s reaction on Twitter “kind of silly.”

“Here’s my point,” he continued. “We only have two major political parties in America. They have to be big tents if they’re going to succeed. So, OK, she got elected to Congress — she’s inside the tent now, but I just disagree.”

“The more typical Democrat elected to the House for the first time this year didn’t share her point of view,” he said. “They were center-left.”

Lieberman, 76, represented Connecticut in the US Senate from 1989 to 2013.

He was Democrat Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 and lost his Democratic primary in 2006, mounting a successful third-party bid to keep his Senate seat.

In 2008, he incensed some members of the Democratic Party by endorsing his good friend Sen. John McCain, a Republican, over the Democrats’ nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, in the race for the White House. Lieberman backed Hillary Clinton in 2016.
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