Ocasio-Cortez: Biden speech ‘left a little bit to be desired for key constituencies’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said President Biden’s first State of the Union address “left a little bit to be desired for key constituencies in the Democratic base.”

Ocasio-Cortez, speaking to MSNBC during an interview after Biden’s speech, said there were “some things that were left unsaid” in the president’s remarks, specifically pointing to student loan debt, education and immigration.

“I do think that there are some things that were left unsaid in which we’re really going to have to work on as a party in order to really speak to constituencies that have historically supported the president, whose turnout we need, and whose support we need right now and in the coming years that perhaps haven’t heard their issue spoken to in a way that they wanted to hear it,” Ocasio-Cortez said when asked if she liked the president’s speech.

“Things like student loan debt, larger themes and crises in education, as well as the piece on immigration was really just glossed over,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Biden, during Tuesday night’s remarks, said the U.S. needs to “secure our border and fix the immigration system.” He spoke about efforts combating drug smuggling and human trafficking and discussed providing a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers,” individuals on temporary status and farm and essential workers.

“We heard, you know, some speaking to Dreamers, but Dreamers want their families to be able to stay. They don’t want to be separated from their parents either,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“So I think there’s some themes that left a little bit to be desired for key constituencies in the Democratic base. But the president’s goal was very clear: He was laser focused on really projecting a theme of unity and I think he stuck to that,” she added.

The New York Democrat, however, praised the beginning of Biden’s speech, which focused on the unfolding Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ocasio-Cortez said the remarks had a “very, very strong opening” that reassured Americans of the United States’ “stance in response to the crisis in Ukraine right now.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s frequent ally Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Tuesday knocked centrist Democrats after Biden’s speech, arguing that progressive had fought the hardest for the president’s agenda.

She took aim at Republicans and “just enough corporate-backed obstructionists” in the Democratic Party who stopped the roughly $2 trillion social spending and climate package, which came to a standstill in December after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he would not support the legislation.