Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) fired back at former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Saturday after the outgoing senator criticized the freshman New York lawmaker for her embrace of the Democratic Party’s left wing.
In a series of tweets, Ocasio-Cortez called McCaskill’s rhetoric “pretty disappointing” and pointed out that progressive initiatives including a minimum wage increase won on the ballot in Missouri in November while McCaskill, a more conservative Democrat, lost.
“Not sure why fmr Sen. McCaskill keeps going on TV to call me a “thing” and “shiny object,” but it’s pretty disappointing,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote Saturday.
“McCaskill promised she’d ‘100% back Trump up’ on his anti-immigrant rhetoric & lost. In MO, almost all progressive ballot issues won,” she continued.
The freshman New York Democrat added in another tweet that McCaskill was wrong to speak about conversations with GOP senators in which they deride President Trump, which she amounted to helping Republican “accomplices” to the president.
“I’m also not sure why McCaskill is covering for the GOP by saying they ‘secretly think Trump is nuts,’ she continued.{mosads}
“Nobody cares. Trump is melting down our institutions and inciting division between people. At any time GOP could have checked him and choose not to. They’re accomplices,” Ocasio-Cortez concluded.
Her flurry of tweets comes following an exit interview the former senator gave to CNN, in which McCaskill took direct aim at Ocasio-Cortez and the party’s progressive wing.
“I’m a little confused why she’s the thing,” McCaskill told CNN. “But it’s a good example of what I’m talking about, a bright shiny new object, came out of nowhere and surprised people when she beat a very experienced congressman.”
“The rhetoric is cheap. Getting results is a lot harder,” McCaskill added.
A two-term senator from Missouri, McCaskill was ousted in November by the state’s former attorney general, Josh Hawley, who was supported by Trump and other national Republicans during her reelection bid.