Ocasio-Cortez Celebrates New York Rejecting Amazon: We Defeated the ‘Richest Man in the World’

Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) congratulated New Yorkers Thursday for having “defeated” Amazon’s plans to build headquarters in New York City, which she does not believe will help New Yorkers. The congresswoman also took a jab at “the richest man in the world,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whom she had criticized in the past for poor corporate hiring practices.

“Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world,” tweeted Ocasio-Cortez.

“I think it’s incredible,” said Ocasio-Cortez when asked by congressional reporters Thursday afternoon, describing the Amazon New York project as one that “was not primarily putting the community first.”

According to an Amazon statement, the project that was intended to bring 25,000 jobs to New York City is being nixed in response to backlash from Ocasio-Cortez and a group of local Democrats who had “made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City.”

Amazon thanked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio but said the company does “not intend to reopen the HQ2 search at this time.”

“We will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville, and we will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the US and Canada,” the company statement reads.