Isaac SchorrMay 9th, 2026, 8:39 am

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) argued that the left should refrain from associating with former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene at an event hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on Friday.

Greene has enjoyed a surplus of strange new respect from progressives in the months since her falling out with President Donald Trump last year. But on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez drew a firm line between herself and Greene, whom she characterized as “a proven bigot and anti-Semite.”

Here’s the exchange during which she laid out her position:

STUDENT: Representative Ocasio-Cortez, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us tonight. In 2021, you stated that there were, quote, “legitimate white supremacist sympathizers at the core of the House of Representatives caucus.” Yet since then, in efforts to ban congressional insider trading of securities, you’ve worked across the aisle with representatives such as Representative Tim Burchett, a Republican from the state of Tennessee. Do you stand by those former comments? And do you think that they make bipartisanship harder? And furthermore, how have your views on bipartisanship evolved over your last six years in Congress?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Thank you, thank you for the question. I do stand by those comments — it’s just true! And for his part, you know, Congressman Burchett has called me a communist, and a witch, and whatever it is, and I, yeah, but you know what? We gotta ban insider trading in Congress. And I don’t-, I care about results, I care about results.

Now, there are certain places where, certain areas where I don’t think that we should ignore some folks’ record on some of these issues, right? It’s about where we trust intent, where we trust where those outcomes are going. I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and anti-Semite, on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis. I don’t! I don’t think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists. I don’t think it serves us. And so I think it’s about looking at the context, the place, the results, the outcomes, intentions, and where we think that train would go.

Watch above via C-SPAN 2.

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