Trump predicts AOC would win if she contests against Chuck Schumer in New York Senate primary
President Donald Trump said New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would easily win against Senator Chuck Schumer for a primary election in his long-held New York Senate seat. Trump made the comments on Twitter while sharing a recent story published by The Washington Times about liberals who were raising the prospect of a possible Ocasio-Cortez-vs-Schumer bout in 2022.
“Actually, that would be a big improvement – and she would win!” the president tweeted alongside a link to the story.
As cited by the Washington Times article on Sunday, David Sirota, a senior adviser to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, broached the idea of the race on Twitter. “Just going to say something out loud that should be obvious: The fastest way to speed up the process of changing the corrupt, do-nothing, status-quo-protecting culture of the national Democratic Party is for @AOC to defeat @ChuckSchumer in a Democratic primary in 2022,” Sirota wrote.
According to The Washington Times story, AOC could have a real chance to challenge the old guard of the Democratic party since the sacking of Rep Joe Crowley and the possibility that Rep Eliot Engel might be thrown from the New York Democratic primary this week.
The president's push for AOC comes just days after his Tulsa rally, which saw him mention the liberal firebrand while addressing an unusually diminished audience at the BOK center. "She's (Ocasio-Cortez) got no sense, no credentials... a little charisma, not much," he told the crowd.
AOC, who frequently spars with the president on Twitter, shot back with her own response. "Ah yes - in fact, I'm so uncharismatic and untalented that the President of the United States has dedicated time at multiple rallies over two years to talk about me, a first-term member of Congress [hair flick emoji]."
Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman to ever be elected to Congress, also attacked the president's lackluster turnout at Saturday night's rally. "Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID," she tweeted after the event.
"KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too," AOC added.
It's possible that 69-year-old Schumer seemed reluctant to pick sides in the battle for the 16th Congressional District due to the specter of an Ocasio-Cortez challenge. AOC has thrown her support behind Jamaal Bowman, a 44-year-old middle school principal, who later secured endorsements from Sen. Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Meanwhile, Schumer announced his support for the 16-term incumbent Rep. Engel last week.
“I think Schumer certainly is watching these races very carefully, and I think it does say a lot about where the Democratic Party is headed,” Jeanne Zaino, a political science professor at Iona College told The Washington Times. “One thing I think we can say is the Democrats in New York have a pretty strong bench, and the bench is young and diverse and increasingly liberal, and the establishment folks — Schumer and Cuomo — have felt some of the quakes from that part of the party.”