Responding to President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that Biden did not go far enough in committing to her progressive agenda.
“I think there’s some themes that are left a little bit to be desired for key constituencies in the Democratic base, but the president’s goal was very clear on really projecting a theme of unity and I think he’s still stuck to that,” she said.
On certain issues, such as immigration, Biden wasn’t nearly as radical and accommodative as he should have been, AOC said.
“The piece on immigration was really just glossed over and we have over 10 — you know, anywhere between 10 to 13 million immigrants in this country that feel desperate for a path to citizenship,” she said during an appearance on MSNBC.
“We heard, you know, some speaking to DREAMers but DREAMers want their families to be able to stay. They don’t want to be separated from their parents either,” she added.
Biden didn’t dedicate enough time in the speech to climate change and the importance of weaning America off fossil fuels, AOC suggested. The congresswoman found fault with Biden’s decision to expand domestic oil supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to shield Americans from surging gas prices, soon to be exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
It was “definitely a lost opportunity” that Biden didn’t harp on transitioning away from oil, AOC said, despite Ukraine’s predicament and the fact that many average Americans are struggling to pay the steep bill at the pump. While Republicans have claimed that Biden’s speech was in many ways tone-deaf, and didn’t address the lived realities of Americans, AOC suggested the president should have made the case for alternative energy more forcefully.
“Russia is very, very much reliant on the rest of the world buying its oil. We are releasing oil reserves right now in order to ease that, but we shouldn’t be relying on fossil fuels to begin with and that would really solve a lot of these issues,” she noted.
“I think that there’s a lot more to be desired there. [Electric vehicles], while they are great, they are not the main form of transit for millions of people who live in urban or urban-adjacent areas in the United States. And so we need to hear more about our transition to clean energy beyond just, you know, weatherizing our windows, which is incredibly important, and EVs. But we really need to hear more, I think, about mass transit, trains, high-speed rail and renewable energy,” she said.
Making up for AOC’s disappointment, fellow “squad” member Representative Rashida Tlaib delivered her own version on behalf of the leftist Working Families Party, although she used it as an opportunity to peddle the Build Back Better package and its progressive priorities despite its demise in Congress in early 2022.
Some of Biden’s talking points, such as to “fund” the police rather than “defund it” and to “secure the border,” were seemingly not well received by “squad” member Representative Ilhan Omar, who remained seated while other Democrats gave the president a standing ovation for his police comments.
“Squad” member Representative Cori Bush slammed Biden’s pro-law enforcement statement on social media: “With all due respect, Mr. President. You didn’t mention saving Black lives once in this speech. All our country has done is given more funding to police. The result? 2021 set a record for fatal police shootings. Defund the police. Invest in our communities.”