Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez snaps back at Claire McCaskill for calling her a ‘thing’ – Washington Examiner

Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is showing yet again that she isn’t one to shy away from snapping back at her critics, even if it’s from a member of her own party.

In a recent CNN interview, outgoing Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., expressed confusion about why Ocasio-Cortez has become so popular among Democrats, saying, “I’m a little confused why she’s the thing.”

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted her dismay with that wording on Saturday.

“Not sure why fmr Sen. McCaskill keeps going on TV to call me a ‘thing’ and ‘shiny object,’ but it’s pretty disappointing,” she said.

In that interview, McCaskill admitted she doesn’t know Ocasio-Cortez personally but said the 29-year-old was a “good example” of a “bright shiny new object” that shocked the political world by defeating a very experienced Democratic congressman.

Ocasio-Cortez won against Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in June during the primary race. She then beat her Republican opponent, Anthony Pappas, in the general election and will represent New York’s 14th Congressional District in the next Congress.

Meanwhile, after more than a decade in the Senate, McCaskill lost her re-election bid to Republican Josh Hawley last month.

Ocasio-Cortez pinned that defeat on McCaskill’s willingness to occasionally embrace President Trump in a state that Trump won overwhelmingly in 2016. “McCaskill promised she’d ‘100% back Trump up’ on his anti-immigrant rhetoric & lost. In MO, almost all progressive ballot issues won,” she said on Twitter.

The mention of successful liberal initiatives seemed to be a tacit comeback at McCaskill advising Ocasio-Cortez to be cautious in pushing liberal policies that impact Americans in parts of the country that are not receptive to the priorities of Democrats.

“I hope she also realizes that the parts of the country that are rejecting the Democratic Party, like a whole lot of white working class voters, need to hear about how their work is going to be respected, and the dignity of their jobs, and how we can really stick to issues that we can actually accomplish something on,” McCaskill said. “The rhetoric is cheap. Getting results is a lot harder.”

McCaskill isn’t the only outgoing Democrat who cautioned against a hard-left agenda in the next Congress.

Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly told CNN that Democrats will “start losing the people in my state” if “Medicare for all,” an issue championed by Ocasio-Cortez, is sought after too zealously.