AOC, in First Fox News Visit, Blames Sanders’ Struggles on ‘Rampant Voter Suppression’: Long Lines Turned Off Young Voters in Mich.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in her first appearance on Fox News, attributed the struggles of Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary so far to “rampant voter suppression,” noting that young people at colleges in Michigan faced hours-long waits to vote.
During his Thursday evening interview with AOC, who has endorsed Sanders in the Democratic primary, Fox anchor Bret Baier noted that the Vermont senator had attracted a massive crowd of 10,000 people at the University of Michigan, but that Biden still won every county in the state and cruised to a 16-percentage point victory overall.
“It was like a rock star status. But those kids did not show up, at least if you look at the numbers — just overall this race,” Baier said. “So, how can you say the progressive position is still prevailing nationwide when Joe Biden is winning so much?”
“Well, I think one thing that we — that isn’t being talked about is the rampant voter suppression in this country,” Ocasio-Cortez said, alluding to the long voter lines seen on Super Tuesday in Southern states like Texas, where hundreds of polling places have been closed in recent years. “Right there, in Ann Arbor, where we had that rally, those kids were waiting three hours in line to vote in Michigan. And so when we talk about who’s turning out and who’s not turning out, we absolutely…”
“So, just to be clear, you’re saying that you think voters didn’t get to vote that wanted to vote in Michigan?” Baier broke in to clarify.
“Absolutely,” she confirmed. “You know, obviously there’s also more that we need to do in terms of turning out youth voters. It’s, we need to make sure that we’re inspiring young people to turn out, but when you do turn out, you should not be waiting three, four, seven hours in order to vote. And that causes people to leave.”
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez later pushed back on the idea that she was blaming voter suppression on Sanders’ loss in Michigan when a right-wing news site showed a clip of her Fox News appearance.
I do not attribute the loss on voter suppression.
Biden bested the night, fair & square. However *anywhere* w/ a multi-hour wait to vote – whether in GA, TX, MI, or anywhere else – is a problem.
Voter suppression primarily targets Black voters, & young ppl can be impacted too.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 13, 2020
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
