Here is why Biden is failing according to AOC.
On Friday (April 1), in an impromptu interview with FOX Business, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) discussed the Biden administration’s commitment to progressives within the Democratic base and touched on the party’s chances going into the November midterms.
While walking down the steps of Congress, Fox Business reporter Hillary Vaugh asked, “If President Biden doesn’t take executive action on student loans and on climate, how doomed do you think Democrats are headed into the midterms?”
Ocasio-Cortez replied by saying, Democrats had to ask themselves what they are “realistically accomplishing as a team and as a collective between now and November.”
The New York Democrat then mentioned that Biden has plenty of “options at his disposal,” which she noted he had “not yet exercised,” but indicated that these would be “critical” to Democrats’ chances in the midterms.
She added that while many believed it is swing voters and independents dragging down Biden’s polls, it is young people who Ocasio-Cortez says “have not really been served.”
She then pointed to Biden’s signature Build Back Better plan, which AOC emphasized young people’s priorities were in but had stalled because of opposition from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D).
However, the New York lawmaker highlighted that Biden could still “serve” young people with “significant forgiveness” of student loan debt.
Vaughn then questioned Ocasio-Cortez on whether she thinks members of Congress who still have outstanding student loan debts “should be able to financially benefit from student loan forgiveness, or do you see that as a conflict of interest?”
In response, AOC pointed to her support of “universal policies” like universal healthcare, which alluded to members of Congress benefiting from the program. However, she acknowledged that it was Biden’s jurisdiction and not an act of Congress to decide whether — and how — student loans are forgiven.
