Ocasio-Cortez accuses NY Times of ‘dripping condescension’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pushed back on The New York Times on Wednesday after the paper published an article suggesting that she had “learned to play by Washington’s rules” during her first year in Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter after awarding-winning actress and New York native Cynthia Nixon tweeted in defense of the freshman lawmaker while criticizing the Times for what she called a “desperate desire for a taming of the shrew moment.”

“There will always be powerful interest in promoting the idea that the left is losing power 1 way or another,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “The big way they try to dismantle the left isn’t to attack it, but to gaslight & deflate it. Dripping condescension that I’m being ‘educated’ should be a big red flag.”

There will always be powerful interest in promoting the idea that the left is losing power 1 way or another.

The big way they try to dismantle the left isn’t to attack it, but to gaslight & deflate it.

Dripping condescension that I’m being “educated” should be a big red flag 

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 18, 2019 

The article, which focused on what it described as “a careful political calculus” on the part of the progressive firebrand and rising Democratic star, included an interview with the first-year lawmaker.{mosads}

“I think I have more of a context of what it takes to do this job and survive on a day-to-day basis in a culture that is inherently hostile to people like me,” she was quoted as saying.

The Times also quoted Ocasio-Cortez as saying that she has gone through a “loss of innocence and naïveté,” acknowledging the difficulty of separating work in Congress from politics surrounding reelection campaigns.

Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest congresswoman in history, has maintained a high profile since winning the Democratic primary last year to represent her district, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens.

The Times noted in its story Wednesday that while the newly minted lawmaker appeared in a promotional video in January for Justice Democrats, a liberal group focused on unseating long-serving Democratic policymakers, she has only recently made her first endorsement of a primary challenger to a sitting Democrat in Congress and has backed some incumbents.

On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Marie Newman, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.). Ocasio-Cortez joined several other Democrats in backing Newman.