Ocasio-Cortez Brushes Off Dem Concerns About ‘Socialist’ Labels: ‘Republican Attacks Are Going to Happen Every Cycle’

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) argued that Democrats need to build stronger messaging capabilities in order to fend off criticisms and Republican attacks on their platforms.

As Ocasio-Cortez gave an interview to Jake Tapper for State of the Union, the CNN anchor noted that even though Joe Biden won the presidency, Democrats lost seats in the House of Representatives and failed to take the Senate. After that, Tapper invoked a leaked conference call among Democrats in which Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) warned the party will get “torn apart” in the future if they don’t renounce socialism and platforms like #DefundThePolice.

“Why is she wrong?” Tapper asked.

Ocasio-Cortez responded by saying its “absolutely true” that “Republicans levied very effective rhetorical attacks.” She further argued that Republicans will always hammer Democrats with “slogans” from activist groups, so the party needs to develop a stronger operation to counter these attacks.

I think one of the things that is very important is that is to realize that very effective Republican attacks are going to happen every cycle, so the question is how do we defend ourselves against that? If you look at some of these arguments that are being advanced, that #DefundthePolice hurt or arguments about socialism hurts. Not a single member of congress that I’m aware of campaigned on socialism or defunding the police in this general election.

Ocasio-Cortez continued by warning that “Republicans were very effective at digital organizing strategy,” so Democrats must build themselves up to make themselves more resilient to the onslaught.

Watch above, via CNN.

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