Newly-elected Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's first order of business is to get punked by the Village press as Politico says her first act is to primary Brooklyn Dem Rep. Hakeem Jeffries out of his seat.
Ocasio-Cortez, who ousted House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley earlier this year in a shocking primary victory, put colleagues on notice for future primaries just days after the November election, telling a livestream audience that she and an allied group, Justice Democrats, would keep working together to boost anti-incumbent challengers — though she didn’t name names. But a person who has discussed the project with Ocasio-Cortez and her team said the congresswoman-elect has recruited an African-American woman to challenge Jeffries, who was just elected to replace Crowley as caucus chairman — the No. 5 House Democratic leadership position.
The person who spoke with Ocasio-Cortez and her team, who asked for anonymity to discuss a private conversation, called Jeffries the “highest priority” primary target of Ocasio-Cortez.
A second person with direct knowledge of Justice Democrats’ primary plans said the group is “looking” at Jeffries’ seat. Since Justice Democrats put out a call for potential targets, the group's supporters have singled out Jeffries as a member they would be “excited” to oppose. “We’re not going to shy away from New York,” the second person said.
What's so awful about Hakeem Jeffries then, that he deserves to be drummed out of Congress?
Jeffries has sparked the ire of Justice Democrats for several reasons. The group feels Jeffries takes too much money from corporate interests, a key litmus test, and is overly friendly with banking and pro-charter school interests. But Ocasio-Cortez is also unhappy that a campaign donation to her from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) was allegedly used in a whisper campaign against Lee before her narrow loss to Jeffries in the recent race for Democratic caucus chair.
“It’s personal for Ocasio,” said the person who spoke with Ocasio-Cortez and her staff. "And she’s going to go all out to take him out.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director denied that she had already recruited an anti-Jeffries candidate.
“We’re not looking at recruiting people to run campaigns, we’re looking at building a congressional staff," said Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent.
But when asked whether the congresswoman-elect is looking at Jeffries' seat, Trent said Ocasio-Cortez and her allies were "disappointed" with Jeffries after the caucus chair race.
“We’re disappointed in the way that the leadership elections went down, specifically that leadership election," said Trent. "We would have liked to have seen that be a more fair fight with less pressure."
Now, we should probably take this with an entire salt mine because it's TEAM WIN THE MORNING here saying this and the lesson here is Ocasio-Cortez is definitely calling bullcrap on this story.
One disappointment about DC is the gossip that masquerades as “reporting.”— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 18, 2018
This story has:
- Not a SINGLE named or verifiable source
- Only ONE on-the-record comment, which is a denial.
My dad had a name for junk articles like this:
“Birdcage lining.”
https://t.co/kIBMM2eiWb
Considering Politico's track record in starting "Dems in disarray!" fights, I'm going to have to say "Do better, Politico." The bad guys here aren't the Democrats. And good for AOC to fight back on this.
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