New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the special guest on the first episode of Showtime’s Desus & Mero last night, where she took the duo to meet with two other freshmen congresswomen making waves: Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
Ocasio-Cortez, who sat down to audience chants of “AOC,” spoke to co-hosts Desus Nice and the Kid Mero about right-wing social media trolls, marginal tax rates, and the Green New Deal.
“[The negative social media reaction] is heavy, but in a weird way that stuff is validation that you’re doing something real, ‘cause if you’re just flying under the radar, you’re just trying to get your check, not rock the boat, then what’s the point of being in politics?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “What is the point of doing things if you’re just trying to maintain the status quo that doesn’t help people?”
Desus and Mero even traveled to Capitol Hill to interview Omar and Tlaib about keeping it real with constituents and why they’re seen as so “radical” compared to their congressional peers.
Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib spoke about the aftermath of the Michigan representative calling Trump a “motherfucker” and calling for him to be impeached. Ocasio-Cortez said that she texted Tlaib not to worry about it, asking, “Who cares?”
“She was like, ‘Yeah, I mean, I’m from Detroit. Back there that’s just what we call a guy,’” Ocasio-Cortez said of Tlaib.
“That’s saying, ‘That guy,’” Tlaib said.
“The double standard is that that guy never gets in trouble for all of the boo-boo words he uses,” Omar chimed in.
Omar went on to talk about why it is that it’s so important to the freshman members that they keep it real with the people they’re representing.
“I think we have a beef with almost anyone here because there’s a lack of courage. It seems like we’re all radical because we deeply care about the people we represent and we want to throw down for them,” Omar said.
“Exactly, because for once we’re not just fighting over what is getting done, but we’re fighting over how it’s getting done,” Ocasio-Cortez said.