Ocasio-Cortez on Biden wins: ‘Tonight is a tough night’

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) reacted to former Vice President Joe Biden’s primary wins on Tuesday, telling supporters it was “a tough night” for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) supporters.

“There’s no sugarcoating it. Tonight is a tough night,” Ocasio-Cortez, who is one of Sanders’s most high-profile supporters, said in an Instagram Live video.

“Tonight is a tough night electorally,” she added before citing the generational gap in support between Sanders and Biden. “Older voters, which we know are more reliable voters, which we know turn out, have decisively gone to former Vice President Biden.”

“There’s a generational divide within the Democratic Party on health care, on climate change, on foreign policy, pretty much every policy imaginable,” she said. “As a younger person in this movement, I take a lot of that as information for how we navigate the next decade.

Ocasio-Cortez congratulated Biden on his victories, saying, “If you win a race, you win a race.”

Biden scored decisive primary victories on Tuesday, shoring up support in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi, adding to a growing list of wins across the country.

The former vice president appeared to strike a unifying tone in an address on Tuesday and reached out to Sanders’s supporters.

“I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion,” Biden said in Philadelphia. “We share a common goal, and together we’ll defeat Donald Trump.”