Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) made a surprise appearance at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend by telecast, saying that even if President Trump left office, it would not change the “systemic injustices that led to his election.”
The Daily Beast reports Ocasio-Cortez appeared in front of an audience via Skype following the screening of “Knock Down the House,” a documentary shown at the film festival that depicts the campaigns of four women running campaigns against the Democratic Party establishment, including the campaign of Ocasio-Cortez.
{mosads}“I hope everyone walks away knowing that we are still in a mode where it’s all hands on deck for our democracy,” she told the audience. “This is not just about the president of the United States. He could be gone tomorrow and that will not change the systemic injustices that led to his election, so it’s important that we continue to be all hands on deck in this fight.”
Her digital appearance was met with applause and a standing ovation, according to the Daily Beast.
Ocasio-Cortez has already sparred with President Trump since arriving in Washington, ripping him over the government shutdown in her first speech on the House floor, calling it “the erosion of American democracy.”
The freshman congresswoman was reportedly supposed to make an in-person visit to the inaugural screening of the documentary, but was forced to change her plans and was unable to travel to Park City, Utah, for the festival.
Ocasio-Cortez has become a rising star in the Democratic Party since upsetting entrenched former Rep. Joseph Crowley in the primary last May. Crowley had represented the congressional district Ocasio-Cortez upset him in for nearly two decades.
While speaking to the Sundance crowd, Ocasio-Cortez had a pointed message for the future.
“We can do 2018 again better in 2020, so when someone tells you that they’re going to run for office, believe in them early, don’t dismiss them, and know that when we all participate, and when we all know what we have to give, and when we choose to give it, our nation will be better,” she said. “We have no other choice.”