Who Is She Kidding? AOC Eyes 2028 While Trying to Rewrite Her Own Radical Record.

Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) used to say this stuff plainly. Defund the police. Abolish ICE. Decriminalize the border. Talk up prison abolition. Six years later, with 2028 hanging over every interview, she is trying to put some distance between herself and all of it.

She knows what she's doing.

ABC News journalist Jonathan Karl brought up 2028 recently during an interview, but she ducked. Ocasio-Cortez said she was busy with the midterms. Fine. She still would not rule out running for president or taking on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in a primary:

"I haven't ruled out the possibility. ... Anything is possible at this juncture."

🚨 NEW: She’s running! AOC speaks out on a 2028 bid: “I haven't ruled out the possibility” pic.twitter.com/YDXorcsXQU
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) August 9, 2026

A July University of New Hampshire poll had AOC at 22 percent in the 2028 Democrat field, one point ahead of former Biden Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg. Data for Progress had her beating Schumer in a New York Democrat primary, 55 to 36. Schumer is not in a good spot.

Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) backed Reps. Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) and Dan Goldman (NY-10) in New York City's June primaries. Both lost to DSA-aligned socialists backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The crowd booed when Jeffries appeared on the victory party screen. AOC can wait.

Then Karl got to the record.

To explain away six years of her own record, Ocasio-Cortez borrowed a line from Democrat New York City Councilman Chi Ossé: the radical politics of that period came from COVID lockdown fever. Her point was that lockdown politics made people say things they would not say now:

"Woke 1 was crazy. ... Rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today."

Her record started in 2019, a full year before the pandemic and the lockdowns.

She wanted a national debate over "decarceration" and prison abolition. She said some marginalized groups "have no choice but to riot." Asked whether she would get rid of the Department of Homeland Security altogether, she answered at the time: "I think so. I think so."

New York City proposed a $1 billion cut to the NYPD the next summer. AOC's complaint was that it wasn't enough:

"Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math," she said. "The fight to defund policing continues." She was pushing the argument herself.

She also backed the New Way Forward Act. The bill would have repealed the criminal penalties for illegal entry and ended mandatory detention. It also included a way for some immigrants who had already been deported to return to the United States.

She uses different words now. During the ABC interview, she said she does not support DSA proposals to abolish police and prisons, defund the Defense Department, or grant blanket amnesty. Her office would not say whether she has dropped defunding police or decriminalizing border crossings. It also did not answer the question about riots.

Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer Built Their Own Headaches, Brick by Leftist Brick

GOP pollster Brent Buchanan called AOC "incredibly dangerous." Her favorability is 39 percent after six years as a national Republican target. Democrat strategist James Carville called her "more talented than the rest of them put together." She can raise money, and everybody knows who she is. The younger part of the party isn't running from her. Now she is talking about rent, groceries, and the cost of living. That message does not stop at the Brooklyn line.

Her old positions aren't hard to find. They're on video, and they were extreme. Republicans are welcome to keep using AOC as a fundraising prop. That doesn't make her harmless. She isn't stuck in 2019, either. The cleanup began before the 2028 campaign did.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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