Though she didn’t say so in explicit terms, it was clear Wednesday night on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes” that New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks the Democratic majority in the Senate could have a stronger response to what she called “a fundamental challenge to our democracy” from right-wing Supreme Court justices.
“Every single minute matters, and we have to use our power when we have it,” the representative popularly referred to as AOC told host Chris Hayes.
What prompted this is the news Wednesday of even more documentation that Justice Samuel Alito supported Donald Trump’s attempted coup in January 2021. On Monday it was reported that in the days following the Jan. 6 attack, an upside down U.S. flag was flown at his house.
That was of course a symbol of the insurrectionists during the attack, but Alito claimed that it was actually his wife who flew the flag for reasons unrelated to the attack, and he had nothing to do with it.
But on Wednesday, the New York Times revealed that in 2022, at another property he owns, Alito displayed a separate flag associated with the Jan 6. attack, this one the preferred flag of Christian nationalists.
Hayes brought this up during his interview, and asked Ocasio-Cortez what her role in pushing back might be should Democrats regain their majority in the House of Representatives.
“I don’t even think that we have to wait until we have a Democratic House majority, because we have a Democratic Senate majority,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“And this is a — this is an alarm that I have been sounding for quite some time now. I think that what we are seeing here is an extraordinary breach of not just the trust and the stature of the Supreme Court, but we are seeing a fundamental challenge to our democracy,” she continued. “Samuel Alito has identified himself with the same people who raided the Capitol on Jan. 6 and is now going to be presiding over court cases that have deep implications over the participants of that rally. And while this is the threat to our democracy, Democrats have a responsibility for defending our democracy.
“There should be subpoenas going out. There should be active investigations that are happening,” she continued, adding that she believes that it’s House Democrats’ job to support the “broader effort to stand up for our democracy” when they take the majority.
“When Democrats have power, we have to use it. We cannot be in perpetual campaign mode. We need to be in governance mode. We need to be in accountability mode with every lever that we have, because we cannot take a Senate majority for granted, a House majority for granted, or a White House for granted,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And every single minute matters, and we have to use our power when we have it.”
Watch the exchange below:
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