Controversial progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) had some scathing criticism for GOP presidential wannabee Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. In a recent interview, AOC said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “has made some very large, critical errors” as the governor contends for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” host Jen Psaki asked Ocasio-Cortez if she thinks former President Trump will be the easiest Republican candidate for President Biden to go up against in 2024.
Ocasio-Cortez said she believed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was overplaying his hand in trying to be like former President Donald Trump.
“I think that Governor DeSantis has made some very large, critical errors,” she claimed. “You can’t out-Trump Trump; that’s what he’s trying to do.”
AOC explained that DeSantis, who has been Florida’s governor since 2019, is trying to outdo fellow candidate Trump, noting his recent attacks and legislation targeting his state’s school system and LGBTQ community.
“Well, you can’t out-Trump Trump, right? And that’s what he’s really been trying to do. His attacks on teachers, on schools, on LGBT Americans, I think, go way too far in the State of Florida,” the lawmaker said. “And I think that they are a profound political miscalculation and an overcompensation.”
Ocasio-Cortez added that she thinks DeSantis sacrificed showcasing himself to be the rational candidate compared to Trump in an effort to win votes from Trump’s base.
“He may be trying to win a base, but that base belongs to Donald Trump,” she added. “And he has sacrificed, I think, the one thing that others may have thought would make him competitive, which is this idea that he would somehow be more rational than Donald Trump, which he isn’t.”
AOC’s remarks come as questions surround DeSantis’s presidential campaign strategy nearly a month after he launched his 2024 presidential bid. Even after the anticipation of his campaign launch, DeSantis still continues to trail Trump in national polls, as results from Real Clear Politics’s average poll of polls show 52.4 percent of respondents support Trump, while 21.5 percent cast their support for DeSantis.
However, Proponents of DeSantis have argued that he has empowered parents. DeSantis has said that Florida is where “woke goes to die” and has signed legislation banning divisive political ideologies such as critical race theory, sexualized curriculum in K-12 education, and transgender medical interventions on minors.
Many of these efforts have been applauded by the right, and other GOP states have closely followed in his footsteps.