Thread by @petersterne

In IG Live, @AOC says she doesn't know what's going to happen with Biden.

@AOC @AOC says that she doesn't want to question or attack the motives of people who feel that Biden should step down.

@AOC But AOC also says that she believes that the political class (pundits, media, donors, organization leaders) started to waver after the debate and started to say we need to jump ship based on polling.

AOC says that if the political class was concerned about Biden's age and capability, they should have had this discussion a year ago – instead of supporting Biden back then.

AOC says that if Democrats swap out Biden, the GOP will bring legal challenges based on the Ohio law.

AOC says she has been very upset to see lots of Democrats giving anonymous quotes to journalists attacking Biden. "That's bullshit," she says. "If you have an opinion, say it with your chest and say it in public."

AOC says she's not calling out the people who have publicly called for Biden to resign but the ones who are too cowardly to say what they believe publicly but are happy to talk to journalists anonymously.

AOC on IG Live: "If you think there is consensus among people who want Joe Biden to leave, and they will support Kamala, you are mistaken...a lot of them are not just interested in removing the president, they are interested in removing the old ticket."

AOC: "If you think that is going to be an easy transition, I'm here to tell you that a huge amount of the donor class and these elites who are pushing for the president not to be the nominee also do not want to see the VP be the nominee."

AOC: "I have stood up in rooms with all of these people and I have said, 'game out your actual plan for me.' What are the risks of this going to the Supreme Court? And no one had an answer for me...I'm talking about the lawyers. I'm talking about the legislators."

AOC: While I understand the case some folks may be making from a theoretical perspective or a polling perspective, I'm here as a person who is responsible for executing decisions and not just opining on them, I have not seen the plan.

AOC: When a convention is in 4ish weeks, when Michigan has to finalize their ballot 2 days after the convention concludes...the legal problems start to mount, I am concerned about the lack of thought I have seen from the individuals who would be responsible for executing on this.

AOC: There is no safe option...I have not seen an alternative scenario that I feel does not set us up for enormous peril based on what I'm noticing privately and what I see publicly.

AOC: I have not seen what I need to see to substantiate an alternative (to Biden). What I will say is what upsets me is people saying we will lose. For me, to a certain extent, I don't care what name is on there. We are losing. My community does not have the option to lose.

AOC: My community does not have the luxury of accepting loss in July in an election year. My people are the first ones deported. They're the first ones put in Rikers...We need to make decisions in the conditions we have before us, even if they're ugly, even if they're hard.

AOC: I do think that people underestimate Biden's performance. I think that's how he became president, through people underestimating his performance.

AOC: In my 4 primary elections, my vote share has only gone up since I first won election, even with disinformation campaigns targeting me from the right and from the left.

AOC: What I'm seeing here in terms of how this decision is being made through a litigation among a certain class is disturbing to me. The mechanisms by which this decision is being made is concerning me.

AOC: When I'm talking to people in rooms, I'm hearing "my donor this, my donor that" not "my voters this, my voters that." ... I could give two damns what a bunch of rich people think. What I care about is what the working class thinks and what people not on social media think.

AOC: Joe Biden actually stomps among old people, who are hard for Democrats to win. Those are not people who are on Twitter but they vote more than any other bracket. You can't assume those voters will transfer to any other candidate.

AOC: People say I'm a neolib sell-out careerist. If I were here to sell out, there are much more lucrative ways!

AOC: I think there are certain things about Joe Biden as a candidate and as a person that people often conflate. The debate had no audience. Then people went the next day and saw that he did amazing at a rally. It went super well. Joe Biden needs the energy of people around him.

AOC: You can totally rake me over the coals. Trust me, if I were trying to do something that I thought was calculatingly the best for me, I would not be on this Live right now. But I'm doing this because I care deeply about the outcome of this election.

AOC: I would regret not raising some of these matters that I feel are not getting appropriate consideration. It bums me out when I see how many people and perspectives are being left out of the conversations about this decision.

AOC: I'm not here to have a debate. I'm not here to argue. I'm not here to say anyone is wrong. What I'm humbly trying to do is just contribute some of these concerns because it's real & what I think is a risk.

AOC: Maybe I'm wrong, but one thing I get very concerned about is Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court deciding this election. It's already happened before. That's how George W. Bush became president.

AOC: Maybe I'm taking a big L. But I think that there are just real concerns. It's annoying me how this is being litigated on CNN. A lot of people are just not on the ground.

AOC: I've been on the left, I am on the left, and I've seen the left be really wrong before electorally. I've seen the left be very right electorally.

President Biden has very strong union support, and that's not something that just goes automatically to any Democrat.

AOC: The theory of how labor aligns itself politically versus the reality and process of it – it's not easy, and it's really hard-earned. I was elected as a democratic socialist. Did that mean that unions automatically supported me? No! I had to work for years and years.

AOC: I just want people to come to their conclusions eyes wide open.

If you're falling out of a coconut tree, god bless you. If you're riding with the president, god bless you. I'm not an open convention person. I think that's crazy.

AOC: My opinion is to not get your opinion from whatever's on CNN. Look at the facts of it. It's kind of crazy to me that people are talking about this without talking about how this would actually go down.

AOC: I'm a polling skeptic. My first election, polls had me down by 35 points. I won by 13. This year, I had a primary election. My own private polling had me down by double digits from where I ended up performing.

AOC: I don't want to be a data denialist either. But I think that's also what's contributing to the complexity of the situation. The argument that many Democrats are polling ahead of the president – that's not necessarily a bad thing in certain places.

AOC: People are saying it's cope or whatever. It's not cope. This is a moment of ambiguity. I'm not like a Biden campaign co-chair. I go out and I campaign for the president and I stump for the president, and I have done that because he is our Democratic nominee.

AOC: There are also a lot of things that have happened that I don't agree with and that I find morally horrific. Complexity is the job.

AOC: If you think a lot of the folks who are in charge of swaying this position are defaulting to the VP, you are mistaken. That is not something to be taken for granted. That would have to be a fight too. So all you folks who are coconut-pilled in the comments, buckle up!

@AOC You can watch @AOC's entire IG reel discussing Biden here: instagram.com/reel/C9l41vgOA…