The DNC (Democratic National Convention) started on Monday (August 17th), and yesterday saw a short speech from the Representative for NY’s 14th district, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (commonly abbreviated to AOC).
In her speech, Ocasio-Cortez made the most of her short amount of speaking time, championing equality and social justice while touching on health care, living wages, labor rights and education.
Part of her speech, however, has caused some confusion. In it, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Bernie Sanders for president: ‘In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care — and in el espíritu del pueblo, and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America’.
On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez explained: ‘If you were confused, no worries! Convention rules require roll call & nominations for every candidate that passes the delegate threshold. I was asked to 2nd the nom for Sen. Sanders for roll call. I extend my deepest congratulations to @JoeBiden – let’s go win in November’.
Her nomination of Sanders was a formality and symbolic – not a deliberate snub of Joe Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez also criticized NBC News for an ‘obvious and blatantly misleading tweet’ in which they emphasized that ‘Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse Joe Biden’. She then challenged them after they posted a clarification and deleted the tweet in question: ‘So @NBCNews how are you going to fix the incredible amount of damage and misinformation that you are now responsible for? Because a 1:15am tweet to slip under the radar after blowing up a totally false and divisive narrative across networks isn’t it’.
You can watch coverage of the DNC on Amazon Prime Video totally free now with a 30 day free trial – plus, you can check out our full guide to streaming the convention here for additional (and free) options.
