NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo lashed out at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Thursday, blaming her for Democrats’ defeat in the 2024 elections during a public spat.
In a social media post on X, Ocasio-Cortez ripped Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) for condemning the Senate changes to President Donald Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" and voting for it anyway. Ocasio-Cortez went on to place the blame for the potential impacts of the megabill, which include 17 million Americans losing health insurance, directly at her feet.
Cuomo, a critic of the sprawling spending package as well, argued the blame for the bill’s impacts rested on Ocasio-Cortez’s feet.
“Dont forget we are in this situation because you took your party so far left that a majority in this country found your party unelectable,” Cuomo said in a post on X.
While Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately address the accusation, Cuomo’s comments ignited a firestorm among some left-leaning journalists and political commentators.
“Total utter BS,” wrote Mehdi Hasan, columnist for The Guardian and former MSNBC host, in a post on X. “Most of the polls suggest that if (Kamala) Harris had actually campaigned on a populist economic message and on antiwar message, both of which were advocated by (Ocasio-Cortez) and Bernie Sanders among many others, she probably would have won.”
Others, like political commentator Krystal Ball, former host for MSNBC and The Hill, called Cuomo’s comments a “meltdown,” and suggested it was over his brother Andrew Cuomo’s surprising defeat in the Democratic primary New York City mayoral race to Zohran Mamdani.
“Meltdown over his brother’s humiliating loss to Zohran Mamdani continues,” Ball wrote on X.
Cuomo has hosted his own show on NewsNation since 2022 after being fired from CNN for his role in assisting his brother’s defense during his sexual harassment scandal, going so far as to use his media contacts to collect information on his brother’s accusers.