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Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said her party was still stuck in its “old ways” as she reacted to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s failed bid to become top chairwoman of the Democratic Oversight Committee, and suggested they were too focused on seniority.
“While I think both of them are absolutely qualified, I think within the Democratic Caucus we’re really stuck in our old ways of doing things, which is that you get there by seniority. And so if you’re there longer, you get a post, and I don’t think in we’re totally sitting there saying, ‘who might be best equipped for this moment?'” Crockett said.
Ocasio-Cortez lost in the race for top Democrat on the committee to Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who is more moderate. The 74-year-old lawmaker’s victory over Ocasio-Cortez was seen as a blow to progressives.
“I think America is looking at us and saying, wait a minute, we lost the elections, and we know that the Senate lost seats, now we have picked up seats in the House, right? But I think they are saying, we are looking to you to show us that you willing to shake things up if it means we can move this country forward,” Crockett said.
Rep. Crockett joined MSNBC on Saturday and said Democrats are stuck on the “old road.” (Screenshot/MSNBC)
Crockett said the Oversight Committee will be in good hands under Connolly, but said more frequent leadership turnover would benefit Democrats.
“I think within the caucus we’re going to talk about how we lead, because on the Republican side, they have term limits and so you can’t sit in those seats for long, so they end up firing their leadership a lot more often than we do on the Democratic side,” he said.
Ocasio-Cortez’s loss was criticized by several media outlets, including MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, who said it was an obvious opportunity for Democrats to show they had learned from the election results.
“This is one of the few committees in Congress that actually gets national attention or media coverage. Under Jamie Raskin, it has become a critical platform for countering Republican disinformation. And while I have deep, deep respect for Speaker Pelosi … and nothing against Congressman Connolly at all, this seemed like an obvious opportunity to apply some of the lessons we should have learned from the November election,” Psaki said.
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Psaki added that Democrats passed up “one of the youngest, most media-savvy members of Congress for a key public leadership role.”
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes too he fired up the Democrats for forwarding the AOC, and singled out former House Speaker Pelosi specifically for whipping up votes for Connolly.
“But now Pelosi mustered the votes to ensure that Connolly gets the job overseeing the party’s young star, even as Pelosi, 84, is recovering from hip surgery after a fall. It feels like a moment of true madness,” Hayes said. “And the Democrats don’t they take this issue seriously, despite everything that has happened. But they have to.”
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“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin also addressed Ocasio-Cortez’s loss and spoke in favor of her progressive policies, which she argued should be popular with all Americans.
“The right has demonized her, and she’s been demonized as this, like, too progressive far left, and I want to try to correct that because if she’s too progressive, then the Democrats are really going to lose the working class,” Hostin said Wednesday.
