Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t a shoo-in to be the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee if Biden were to bow out.
During an Instagram live session posted Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez warned that some of the same Democrats dissenting to a second Biden presidency also want Harris gone.
“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave, that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” she said.
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Biden dropping out of the presidential race would not be “an easy transition,” said Ocasio-Cortez because there is “a huge amount of the donor class and these elites” who also do not want to see Harris be the nominee.
She added, “there is no safe option.”
With no clear consensus on who could replace Biden atop the Democratic ticket, Ocasio-Cortez explained that it could spell chaos for the upcoming Democratic National Convention on August 19-22.
@msnbc As more Democrats call on President Biden to leave the presidential race, two prominent members, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), are questioning if it is the right path forward. #aoc #bernie #biden #election #2024 #fyp ♬ original sound - MSNBC
“I have not seen an alternative scenario that does not set us up for enormous peril,” said Ocasio-Cortez, adding that Dems would have to go back to the drawing board in August when some people vote as early as September with absentee ballots.
A presidential ticket without Biden would also open up the possibility of legal challenges in swing states to block a new Democratic nominee from being added to the presidential ticket.
“Republicans, they mount that legal challenge, [then] the possibility of our elections being decided by a Supreme Court ruling skyrocket,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
She encouraged her fellow Democrats who want Biden off the ticket “to sit with the stakes, with the reality,” of what that could mean for November. “And if you come to the same conclusion. Fine.”
