Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Trump is the racist visionary, but McConnell gets the job done’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) lashed out at President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a new interview, calling the president a “racist visionary.” 

In an interview with Vanity Fair published Wednesday, the New York Democrat alluded to a New York Times report last month that Trump paid no income taxes for 10 of the 15 years before he was elected president and just $750 a year in 2016 and 2017. 

“These are the same people saying that we can’t have tuition-free public colleges because there’s no money,” Ocasio-Cortez told the magazine, “when these motherf—ers are only paying $750 a year in taxes.”

Ocasio-Cortez alleged that “Trump is the racist visionary, but McConnell gets the job done. He doesn’t do anything without Trump’s blessing. Trump says, ‘Jump.’ McConnell says, ‘How high?’ Trump never does what McConnell says.”

The progressive lawmaker also weighed in on the upcoming presidential election between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. In the past, Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed the more liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the 2020 primaries, has argued that Biden would do a better job than Trump at protected marginalized communities.

“This is not about a decision between two candidates,” she told Vanity Fair. “It’s about a decision between two countries.”

She added that the future of the Democratic Party hinges on a Biden administration being able to make real changes in the lives of those who are struggling.

“If these people’s lives don’t actually feel different” Ocasio-Cortez said, “we’re done. You know how many Trumps there are in waiting?” 

“I think, honestly, a lot of my dissent within the Democratic Party comes from my lived experience. It’s not just that we can be better, it’s that we have to be better. We’re not good enough right now,” she added.

Ocasio-Cortez had recently said that Democrats should focus on winning next week’s election before pushing for policies under a possible Biden administration.

“I don’t want us to start counting our chickens before they hatch,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier this week. “I think we need to focus on winning the White House period.”