As the federal government barrels toward a shutdown, with Democrats demanding an extension of critical health care subsidies as the price of their vote for funding, and the Trump administration preparing for mass layoffs of workers to make the standoff as painful as possible, Republicans have sought to push a narrative that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the architect of the standoff.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, had a simple proposition for these lawmakers on Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's "All In": if they really feel she's the problem, say it to her face.
"There are some people I have seen who have the following theory of why Senate Democrats have not cut a deal where they give eight votes and, you know, move along," said Hayes. "And that is that [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer is worried about a primary challenge from you and is worried about the politics to his left flank. And so, because of that worry about a primary challenge, he's going to shut down the government. Ergo, it is AOC's fault that the government is shutting down or that you're, that you're somehow the fulcrum of this."
"I want to just ask you straight-up: like, are you planning to primary challenge him? Do you think that's why he's doing this?" he asked.
"This is so not about me in this moment," said Ocasio-Cortez. "This is about people being able to insure their children. And I will say, because I saw some senators speculating about this, and I saw some Republican members of Congress saying, 'Oh, well, if we have this shutdown, it's because of AOC.' Well, if that's the case, my office is open and you are free to walk in and negotiate with me directly, because what I'm not going to do is tolerate 4 million uninsured Americans, because Donald Trump decided one day that he wants to just make sure that kids are dying because they don't have access to insurance. That's what's not going to happen."
"And so if those senators think that we're having a shutdown because of me, they're free to enter my office and negotiate, because what we're not going to do is allow all of millions of people in this country to not be able to afford their insulin and their chemotherapy," she added. "So come strike a deal with me, if that's what they really think is going on."
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