AOC Turns on 'Divisive' Ex-Chief of Staff; Says He 'Targeted' Moderate Democrats
Ocasio-Cortez blames Saikrat Chakrabarti for tensions between Squad and top Dems
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Far-left celebrity Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has turned on her ex-chief of staff, claiming his "divisive" tactics and "targetting" of other Dems led to tensions among House Democrats.
During an interview with the New York Daily News, Ocasio-Cortez continued to further distance herself from Saikrat Chakrabarti, accusing her former top aide of creating divisions among the House Democratic Caucus.
Her comments follow Chakrabarti’s surprise resignation earlier this month after a series of controversies that created heightened tensions within the party.
Speaking from her district office in Jackson Heights, Ocasio-Cortez said Chakrabarti’s recent resignation had nothing to do with his controversial June 27 tweet.
In a post on Twitter, Chakrabarti compared members of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition to “Southern Democrats" in the early 20th century who opposed desegregation efforts.
Ocasio-Cortez distanced herself from Chakrabarti’s controversial post for the first time, however.
“I think it was divisive,” she said, adding, “I believe in criticizing stances, but I don’t believe in specifically targeting members."
She added that her office then spoke with Chakrabarti, prompting him to “immediately [take] the tweet down.”
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According to Fox News, Chakrabarti, who helped manage Ocasio-Cortez’s upstart 2018 campaign, drew the ire of Democrats last month when he publicly criticized party moderates during policy spats between progressive members and party leadership.
In June, he tweeted that Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress, enabled a racist system after she voted in favor of a Senate border bill not backed by progressives.
“Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color?” the House Democratic Caucus' official account tweeted last month.
"Her name is Congresswoman Davids, not Sharice," the House Democrats added.
"She is a phenomenal new member who flipped a red seat blue."
"Keep Her Name Out Of Your Mouth," the tweet concluded -- with interspersed emojis of clapping hands.
In July, Chakrabarti described centrist Democrats who blocked a liberal-backed emergency border bill as the "new Southern Democrats."
They “certainly seem hell bent [sic] to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s,” he tweeted in a now-deleted post.
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Chakrabarti’s comments contributed to the combative relationship between AOC's so-called "Squad" of progressive freshmen Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi took a swipe at Ocasio-Cortez along with Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts – whom she called "four people" who don't have any following.
Ocasio-Cortez said they were singled out because they are newly elected women of color, further deepening divisions within the party.
Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, asked Ocasio-Cortez to fire Chakrabarti in an attempt to start over.
His resignation came shortly after Ocasio-Cortez met with Pelosi in an effort to ease the tensions in the caucus.
