Up First from NPR
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says She's Fighting President Trump's "Illusion of Power"
Sat, 01 Mar 2025
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, says she thinks Republicans have begun making mistakes... and her party is resolved to strike back.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.This bonus episode of Up First was edited by Susan Davis, Kelsey Snell and Reena Advani. It was produced by Adam Bearne. We get engineering support from Neil Tevault and Hannah Gluvna. Our Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Why is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez challenging the Justice Department?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez challenged the Justice Department to say if she's under investigation.
Chapter 2: How does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez view the current administration?
It's important to call this administration's bluff. They rely on the illusion of power.
Chapter 3: What are the Democratic Party's strategies to regain working class support?
The Democrat wants to find her party's way back into power. It's a special episode of Up First from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Ocasio-Cortez wants to win back working class voters who supported President Trump in 2024, which leads to a question. To what extent is immigration as an issue part of your problem with working class voters?
I guess my question would be, what does the word problem mean?
Also, did Trump get ahead of Democrats on working class economic issues? And have Democrats lost ground because they're bad at governing? Stay with us. We'll put those questions and more to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the Democratic Party's biggest stars. When she was first elected in 2018, she was very much an outsider, a social media phenomenon, often a critic of her party's programs and leaders. Now she's seen as more of an insider, a somewhat more senior figure, still a big star.
And so we brought her here to Studio One to ask what she thinks her party can do with its current dilemma. Democrats are out of power in Washington. They're watching President Trump enact his agenda. And they know the president has great appeal with a large part of their traditional base, the working class, people Ocasio-Cortez would feel that she would like to represent.
Here's some of our conversation. If you had to pick one word, what is a word that describes the state of your party right now?
I think a word to describe the state of the party is... Resolved. If I had to pick one word, it would be resolved.
It's not shocked or dismayed or anything like that at this moment?
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Chapter 4: What is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's opinion on Medicaid cuts?
I mean, in this moment, I think we've moved through shock. I think we've moved through dismay. I think we've moved through the five stages of grief. I think we've moved through that defensiveness. But it is, I think, a rapidly evolving situation.
Just before we talk, the situation evolved a bit more. House Republicans approved a budget plan with hardly a vote to spare. Ocasio-Cortez joined every Democrat in voting no.
I do believe that the Republican Party is making certain large errors right now and that they are underestimating the public vote.
She focused especially on one large number, $880 billion. That's the amount of savings that Republicans propose to find, much of it likely from Medicaid, which provides health care for millions. When asked this week, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson defended those cuts.
Those are precious taxpayer dollars.
And he told reporters at the Capitol that the change would not affect care.
Can you say unequivocally that further down the line there won't be any cuts to Medicaid programs?
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Chapter 5: How have Democrats responded to Trump's appeal to traditional constituencies?
Yeah, so look, let me clarify what we're talking about with Medicaid. Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse. Everybody knows that. We all know it intuitively. No one in here would disagree.
In our conversation, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez essentially did disagree, casting doubt that cutting waste could save so much.
If that cut becomes reality, it's important for people to understand not just are people going to be thrown off of Medicaid. Not only are Medicare recipients who receive, for example, long-term care benefits from Medicaid going to be affected.
But people who are not on Medicaid are likely going to see their health insurance premiums go up because the more people get kicked off of Medicaid, the more uninsured people there are in the United States, the more they use ERs, the more that they go directly to hospitals for care, and the... cost of uninsured people is oftentimes then born in health insurance premiums as well and deductibles.
The erosion of Democratic Party support among working class voters has been pretty well documented. It seems to cross racial and other lines. It's real. And Democrats have talked a lot about what they maybe did wrong and the way that they spoke or the way they approached people or the way that they acted. But I want to flip that around a little bit.
What do you think President Trump has done right that has appealed to traditional Democratic constituencies?
Some of his campaign promises, he does a good job of pairing what I would say some of the largest giveaways to the 1% and elites with very tangible ideas. policy promises.
No tax on tips.
Exactly. You take no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. These things sound great. They also directly appeal to very specific pockets of people who tend to be working class. And that creates a permission structure, right? You toss a crumb to us and you give the farm to the big fish. And I think he's very sophisticated in how he tailors those things.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do Democrats face with immigration under Biden?
I think of another aspect of this, though. Dean Phillips, one of your fellow Democratic members, was on television this past week, Fox News as a matter of fact, and he appeared to wish Democrats acted a little more like Trump in this way. He wished that they would appeal to business people, to get smart people into government, to talk about efficiency.
He seemed to wish Democrats would do what Elon Musk is doing, even if he doesn't agree with the way that Elon Musk is doing it.
I would say that instead of appealing to other politicians, we should be appealing to the American people. And if you ask the American people what they think of what Elon Musk and Doge are doing with government right now, they are vehemently opposed. The reactions right now are not just in Democratic districts. They are in Republican districts.
Even Republicans in my district, they're saying, I voted for Trump. I did not vote for Elon Musk. I did not vote for this. I did not vote for mass buyouts of the federal workforce. We did not vote for the corruption of gutting NASA and then having the contracts go to SpaceX. We did not vote for Starlink to start replacing critical FAA operations.
Which is the thing that's in the news. It's being discussed.
Yes. And I think that there is a very, very deep corruption at the core of this. If Elon Musk wanted to divest himself of his businesses and... enter public service with his so-called business expertise, that is his prerogative. But so long as he maintains a vested financial interest in gutting the federal government, he is acting in his own self-interest and not those of the American people.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was talking in NPR Studio One. We met with her at a moment when Democrats are out of power and trying to find their way back in. And we're reaching the point in our conversation where we asked about one of the most polarizing issues, immigration. Surveys suggest that President Biden's handling of that issue cost Democrats votes, even in some immigrant communities.
So can Democrats push back against a president they see as lawless while also defending people in the country who lack legal status? Her answer comes right after this. It's a special edition of Up First. I'm Steve Inskeep. The first time I talked with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was June 27th, 2018.
It was the morning after a primary election in New York when a leading House Democrat, Joe Crowley, lost his seat. On the radio the next morning, we heard Crowley singing in tribute to the woman who defeated him. Let's hear that moment from 2018. Born to run, as Springsteen fans will know. Crowley was singing for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She's 28 years old.
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