New York U.S. House representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she feels her life has been “in danger” since being elected to Congress.
CNN’s Chris Wallace asked Ocasio-Cortez if she felt her life was in danger during the New York representative’s Friday appearance on Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace?
“Absolutely, I felt that my life has been in danger since the moment that I won my primary election in 2018,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “And it became especially intensified when I was first brought into Congress in 2019,”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tells CNN's Chris Wallace how she navigates feeling danger in her life, and how that has shaped her political moves. Watch: https://t.co/HOZ2MwsRj6
— CNN (@CNN) November 10, 2022
Wallace asked the New York representative to clarify if she was “looking over over [her] shoulder while walking down the street.”
“It means when I wake up in the morning, I hesitate to walk my dog. It means when I come home, I have to ask my fiancée to come out to where my car is to walk me to just from my car to my front door. It means that there’s just … a general disposition where you kind of feel like there’s almost a static electricity around you.”
“And you’re just always just looking around, your head is just on a swivel, going to a restaurant, walking down the street,” Ocasio-Cortez continued, adding her fears have “very much shaped” her political ideology.
Ocasio-Cortez further noted she did not believe she would “see the end of the year” in 2019.
“I really felt that way,” she said.
Wallace transitioned the conversation to public perception of both parties as politically “extreme,” asking Ocasio-Cortez if she believed the political landscape should move back to the center.
“I think a lot of people in this country may say yes, but it’s important for us to dig into the substance of what that actually means,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “As someone who is often, I think, characterized as extreme, I of course would object to that.”
The New York representative drew a line in the sand, noting a prominent Republican opponent saying, “I do not believe that I am as extreme in the way that Marjorie Taylor Greene on the Republican side is extreme.”
Earlier this month, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to suggest new Twitter owner Elon Musk had tampered with her Twitter notifications following a feud with the tech billionaire. Ocasio-Cortez previously criticized Musk’s move to charge users for blue check mark verification through the platform’s Twitter Blue subscription service.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” said the New York representative.
“Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8” Musk responded.
“My twitter mentions/notifications conveniently aren’t working tonight, so I was informed via text that I seem to have gotten under a certain billionaire’s skin,” Ocasio-Cortez followed up later that day, claiming she was unaware of Musk’s response. The two continued their feud delving into the New York representative’s merchandise practices available on her website.
Ocasio-Cortez has represented New York’s 14th Congressional District since 2019 and successfully won a third term following Tuesday’s midterm.
