Ocasio-Cortez tweets displeasure of Manchin after he attacks ‘crazy socialist agenda’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hit back at a tweet by Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat from West Virginia, with an image of her appearing to glower at him at the State of the Union.

In the original tweet, Manchin linked to an article about his opposition to ending the Senate filibuster while knocking calls from progressive lawmakers, such as Ocasio-Cortez, to defund police.

“Defund the police? Defund, my butt. I’m a proud West Virginia Democrat. We are the party of working men and women. We want to protect Americans’ jobs & healthcare. We do not have some crazy socialist agenda, and we do not believe in defunding the police,” Manchin wrote.

Ocasio-Cortez responded to the tweet on Thursday:

https://t.co/4D4LVOyYhc pic.twitter.com/MwNIc41Szj

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 12, 2020

Tensions have flared in the party after House Democrats underperformed expectations this year, with more conservative Democrats accusing progressive members in solidly blue districts like Ocasio-Cortez’s of sabotaging their chances in swing districts.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who narrowly won reelection last week, spoke out in a call with Democratic House members last week, accusing her more progressive colleagues of enabling Republican attacks that she was anti-law enforcement.

Ocasio-Cortez has fired back at such attacks before, telling The New York Times recently, “It’s your own party thinking you’re the enemy. When your own colleagues talk anonymously in the press and then turn around and say you’re bad because you actually append your name to your opinion.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), another member of “the Squad” of progressive congresswomen of color, expressed similar sentiments, noting that her constituents were key to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan.

“We’re not going to be successful if we’re silencing districts like mine,” Tlaib told Politico this week. “Me not being able to speak on behalf of many of my neighbors right now, many of which are Black neighbors, means me being silenced. I can’t be silent.”