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Bernie Sanders and AOC's Loyalty to Joe Biden Raises Eyebrows [1]

['Rachel Dobkin', 'Todd Armstrong', 'Aron Solomon']

Date: 2024-07-19 12:17:57-04:00

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (AOC) loyalty to President Joe Biden has raised eyebrows this week on social media.

After Biden's weak showing against former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee as of Monday, at the first presidential debate late last month in Atlanta, there have been growing calls among Democrats in Congress and other prominent members of the party for Biden to step aside. Biden, however, has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race.

Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, and Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, are among the progressives in Congress who have stood by the president through this interparty turmoil.

"Joe Biden is our nominee, he is not leaving this race, he is in this race and I support him," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Capitol Hill earlier this month. She also live-streamed on Instagram after Trump's RNC speech on Thursday night where she raised concerns about how Democrats may handle the presidential nomination if Biden were to step aside.

In a New York Times op-ed published last Saturday, Sanders wrote, "I will do all that I can to see that President Biden is re-elected. Why? Despite my disagreements with him on particular issues, he has been the most effective president in the modern history of our country and is the strongest candidate to defeat Mr. Trump—a demagogue and pathological liar."

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez's unrelenting support of Biden has people on social media puzzled.

Bloomberg opinion columnist Matthew Yglesias wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday morning, "I guess I get the gamesmanship of it on some level but the choice of Bernie/AOC/[Senator Elizabeth] Warren to position themselves as the Ridin With Biden dead-enders still seems very weird to me."

"President Biden is our nominee," Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, told the Boston Globe in an article published earlier this month. "He is an excellent president. He works hard on behalf of working families every day."

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, is seen with Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, outside the U.S. Capitol on March 21 in Washington, D.C. Ocasio-Cortez and Sander's loyalty to President Joe Biden has... Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, is seen with Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, outside the U.S. Capitol on March 21 in Washington, D.C. Ocasio-Cortez and Sander's loyalty to President Joe Biden has recently raised eyebrows on social media. More Win McNamee/Getty Images

Matt Pearce, a former Los Angeles Times journalist, pointed to how the Democratic Party treated Sanders when he ran against Biden for the presidential nomination in the 2020 election cycle.

"In 2020, establishment Dems rallied around Joe Biden to squash Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. In 2024, establishment Dems are trying to figure out how to squash Biden's presidential campaign while Bernie stands by him. History is weird," Pearce wrote on X on Thursday afternoon.

Malcolm Harris, author and leftist critic, posted on Thursday, "Another benefit to the scenario where Biden gets pushed out is that it reveals that Bernie and the squad don't have much strategic vision."

"The squad" is a group of progressive lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with Ocasio-Cortez being one of the first four members of it.

Miles Howard, an outdoor author based in Boston who reposts political commentary on X, wrote on Friday, "The worst thing about AOC, Bernie, and their peers hitching their wagon to Biden is that it forces them to engage with their base disingenuously. Not only is this unbecoming of leftist politicians, but it could damage the electorate's trust in the electoral left. Such a bad move."

Sander's office referred Newsweek to the senator's remarks on Morning Joe on Friday morning when reached for comment. On the MSNBC program, Sanders urged Americans to "focus on Biden's record and what he's trying to do."

Newsweek has also reached out to the offices of Ocasio-Cortez and Warren via email for comment.

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[1] Url: https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-loyalty-joe-biden-raises-eyebrows-1927748

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