Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed Friday that progressives like herself have been pleasantly surprised by President Biden’s “openness and willingness” to work with them.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist from New York, was asked during a virtual town hall event to evaluate the president’s first 100 days in office.
“One thing that I will say is that I do think that the Biden administration, President Biden, has definitely exceeded expectations that progressives had,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez responded. “You know, I’ll be frank, I think a lot of us expected a much more conservative administration.
“I think that the actual conduct of the administration has absolutely been in good faith,” she said. “There has been a lot of openness and willingness and flexibility in incorporating many of our goals, requests, demands, etcetera, and I think that it has been to the benefit of the country.”
Mr. Ocasio-Cortez credited her wing of the Democratic Party in “areas where we put our foot down,” such as demanding stimulus checks to individuals and dependents in Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
“There was a moment where those stimulus checks almost did not happen or they would have happened in a smaller amount or they would have happened for way less people,” she said. “And I think that that actual good-faith interaction helped facilitate an environment where we could help a lot more people.
“So, I think that it’s been good so far. I still think that it’s quite early because when it comes to some of these big things that have been passed, it’s pretty much been the COVID bill,” she continued. “And so we’re in the process of shaping the infrastructure bill, but I think that the infrastructure bill will be a key indicator if the administration is keeping or raising its ambitions or if that [American Rescue Plan] was a one and done situation, and we’re going smaller.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said the end product of the infrastructure bill will be indicative of the cohesion of the Democratic Party.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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