‘We Need New Leadership’: Ocasio-Cortez Says It’s Time For Pelosi and Schumer to Go

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks it’s time for new leadership in the Democratic Party.

The progressive New York congresswoman spoke to Jeremy Scahill on the Intercepted podcast about the failure of the U.S. government to provide aid to Americans during the coronavirus crisis.

“On one hand it’s very easy to say Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party are extraordinarily barbaric, which is true,” she said, explaining the deadlock on a new relief package. Ocasio-Cortez also criticized the Democratic Party for “giving away a lot of leverage” by allowing a corporate bailout in the $2 trillion coronavirus air bill passed in March.

Scahill asked: “Isn’t this grounds though, to take a stand and say, No, I’m sorry Nancy Pelosi should not be the speaker and Chuck Schumer should not be the leader.”

“I do think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party,” Ocasio-Cortez said — though she added that “the internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there’s very little option for succession.”

She said she could not do the job herself. “The House is extraordinarily complex and I’m not ready. It can’t be me. I know that I couldn’t do that job.”

Scahill pressed, condemning Democratic leadership for collaborating with “neocons like Liz Cheney” and passing “sweeping surveillance powers” and “record-shattering military expenditures but can’t get 1,200 bucks to suffering Americans.”

“Are you ready to say, Pelosi and Schumer need to go?” he asked.

“I think so,” Ocasio-Cortez. The congresswoman hedged that there needs to be a plan in place before such a change can happen.

“If you create that vacuum, there are so many nefarious forces at play to fill that vacuum with something even worse,” she said. “There are folks more conservative than even they are ready to fill that void.”