OPINION:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made her very first appearance on Fox News on Bret Baier’s show — and immediately dropped a fake news bomb about voter suppression as the reason Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t do as well against former Vice President Joe Biden as predicted, as hoped.
Sure.
You mean like the kind that probably came in 2008 when the New Black Panther Party members, decked in paramilitary garb, hung outside a polling place near Philadelphia — and the then-Eric Holder Justice Department stonewalled for months on investigating? Kind of like that?
No. This suppression in the Democratic presidential primary to which Ocasio-Cortez referred was of a different kind, it seems.
“Well, I think the one thing that we — that isn’t being talked about is the rampant voter suppression in this country,” she said, in reference to the long lines of voters at Super Tuesday polls, Mediaite reported. “Right there, in Ann Arbor, where we had that rally, those kids were waiting three hours in line to vote in Michigan. And so when we talk about who’s turning out and who’s not turning out, we absolutely —”
Baier cut in: “So just to be clear, you’re saying that you think voters didn’t get to vote that wanted to vote in Michigan?”
Ocasio-Cortez’s response: “Absolutely. You know, obviously there’s also more that we need to do in terms of turning out youth voters. It’s — we need to make sure that we’re inspiring young people to turn out, but when you do turn out, you should not be waiting three, four, seven hours in order to vote. And that causes people to leave.”
Most people would see long voting lines as a positive tell of Americans’ interest in the political process.
But Ocasio-Cortez?
It’s a sign of voter suppression.
What’s more, when she was called out for the ridiculous view, she took to Twitter — her safe space, the one that offers her a chance to “speak” without having to deal questions — to deny that was her view.
“I do not attribute the [Sanders] loss on voter suppression,” she wrote. “[Joe] Biden bested the night, fair & square. However ’anywhere’ w/ a multi-hour wait to vote — whether in GA, TX, MI, or anywhere else — is a problem. Voter suppression primarily targets Black voters, & young ppl can be impacted too.”
Sorry, but long lines at the voting polls is not a sign of voter suppression.
It’s actually quite the opposite.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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