Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to speculation about her 2028 presidential ambitions during a speech on Friday night by saying that her real ambition is far more radical.
During a conversation hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics with longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod, the socialist brushed aside questions about a potential 2028 presidential run or a challenge to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“You know, it’s funny because in this op-ed that Jeff Bezos paid for in The Washington Post, there was this line that you even mentioned earlier, about, ‘Well, as a potential 2028 contender, X, Y, Z.’ And in the context of that, it was very clear that this was a veiled threat, right?”
“This was the elite saying, ‘If you want this job, you just stepped out of line. And we want you to know where the real power is. And it’s in the modern-day barons who own the Post and own the algorithms, and we’re gonna — we’ll make an example out of you,’” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The far-left representative continued, “And what’s funny about that is that they assume that my ambition is positional. They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat.”
“My ambition is way bigger than that,” she said. “My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go, Senate, House seats, elected officials, come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever. A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights — all of that.”
Ocasio-Cortez ranted, “And so, anyways, a finer point to your question is that, when you aren’t attached, right? When you haven’t been, like, fantasizing about being this or that since the time you were seven years old, um, it is tremendously liberating, because I get to wake up every day and say, ‘How am I gonna meet the moment?’”
Hellbound and Down 