Bannon on Republican party: ‘We’ve got to find our AOCs’

Former chief Trump strategist Stephen Bannon is urging the GOP to “find our AOCs,” referring to liberal freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), to help the party better serve working-class voters.

“We’ve turned the Republican Party into a working-class party,” the former Breitbart News executive chairman told The Guardian in a sit-down interview published Tuesday.

“Now, interestingly, we don’t have any elected representatives who believe that, but that’s a legacy issue. We’ll get over that,” he added. “We’ve got to find our AOCs.”

Ocasio-Cortez, a 30-year-old former bartender from the Bronx, was elected to Congress in 2018 after running a strong grassroots campaign and defeating a powerful establishment Democrat in the race’s primary.

Bannon said that Democrats had “better casting” in last year’s midterms, leading to the party regaining control in the House.

“They did an amazing job in ’18. I keep saying I admire AOC,” he said.

“I think her ideology’s all f—-d up, but I want her. I want to recruit bartenders. I don’t want to recruit any more lawyers. I want bartenders.”

Bannon also credited now-Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg for the Democrats’ successful midterms after the former New York mayor put $110 million into his political action committee and 21 out of 24 candidates that he supported won their races. 

In 2017, Bannon left his post at the White House as one of the changes brought on by then-chief of staff John Kelly. The former Breitbart News chief has remained a vocal supporter of President Trump since leaving his administration.