Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) ripped apart one of Donald Trump’s favorite political talking points Thursday, accusing the president and his MAGA allies of slapping the “communist” label on virtually everything they oppose in an effort to keep voters focused on fear instead of facts.
Speaking with the MeidasTouch Network, Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the idea that the United States is somehow on the verge of becoming a communist country, arguing that Republicans frequently promote the claim whenever Democrats propose expanding government programs to help more people.
“I’m not concerned about America turning into a communist country in like a year,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I think that’s very silly.”
Then she explained why.
“Just think about how impossible it has been to raise the minimum wage in America in 10, 15, 20 years,” she said. “We can’t even raise the minimum wage. Do Republicans really think that this stuff is going to happen? No, they don’t.”
According to Ocasio-Cortez, Republicans don’t actually believe the country is headed toward communism. Instead, she said, they use the label as a political scare tactic to distract from issues that resonate with voters.
“They’re trying to scare people because they don’t want us talking about the fact that we all have a right to health care in this country,” she said.
She argued that branding popular policies as “communist” is an attempt to keep Americans from asking why basic benefits available in many other developed countries remain out of reach in the United States.
“So they want to call it communist, and they want to call everything they don’t like communist,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Because if people actually wake up to the fact that their elected officials are screwing them over when they get here, then they’re going to realize that they deserve better and that health care as a right isn’t crazy.”
She pointed to countries such as Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada, all of which provide universal or near-universal health coverage.
“They want to call this stuff communist because they don’t want us to realize that the rest of the developed world has guaranteed health care,” she said. “Germany, Italy, the U.K., Canada—everybody else has it better than us, and we spend the most amount of money for the worst care in the modern developed world.”
Trump has repeatedly labeled Democratic proposals on health care, wages and social programs as “socialist” or “communist.” Ocasio-Cortez argued those attacks are less about ideology than about shifting attention away from policies that many Americans already support.
Watch the full clip below:
