AOC highlights her, Kamala Harris’ middle class upbringing in fiery DNC speech
CHICAGO — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris’ middle class roots in her speech to delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Monday — comparing her own background as a waitress to Harris’ beginnings.
“Six years ago I was taking online orders as a waitress in New York. I didn’t have health insurance, my family was fighting off foreclosure,” AOC said, adding that her family was “tired” of politics that were “blind” to the needs of working people.
“Only through the miracles of Democracy and community did the good people of the Bronx and Queens choose someone like me to elect them in Congress,” she continued.
The same “hope” and “aspiration” that got her into Congress will get Harris and Walz into the White House, she said.
Harris is “for the middle class” because “she is from the middle class,” Ocasio-Cortez said.The left-wing rep received a warm welcome from the DNC crowd, with attendees chanting “AOC” as she walked out on stage. But the 34-year-old lawmaker’s loudest applause came when she mentioned Harris’ approach to the Gaza Strip.
Follow along with The Post’s live reporting on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Ocasio-Cortez said Harris is “working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and to bring the hostages home,” speakingabout the Israeli war with Hamas, the most fiery protest topic at the DNC.
Meanwhile, anti-Israeli protesters disrupted traffic outside the DNC convention center earlier, leading to traffic jams and delays in getting guests and press inside the convention center after one protester breached the fence.
“Thank you Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for your vision. And thank you Joe Biden for your leadership,” AOC went on in her speech.
Republicans have compared ultra-progressive “Squad” member Ocasio-Cortez’s liberal policies Harris’ — in a bid to argue that the vice president has a more liberal agenda than President Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez tore into former President Donald Trump in fiery remarks as well, arguing that he can not “love this country” because he fights for Wall Street and “big business.”
