Up First from NPR
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says She's Fighting President Trump's "Illusion of Power"
01 Mar 2025
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, says she thinks Republicans have begun making mistakes... and her party is resolved to strike back.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.This bonus episode of Up First was edited by Susan Davis, Kelsey Snell and Reena Advani. It was produced by Adam Bearne. We get engineering support from Neil Tevault and Hannah Gluvna. Our Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez challenged the Justice Department to say if she's under investigation.
It's important to call this administration's bluff. They rely on the illusion of power.
The Democrat wants to find her party's way back into power. It's a special episode of Up First from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Ocasio-Cortez wants to win back working class voters who supported President Trump in 2024, which leads to a question. To what extent is immigration as an issue part of your problem with working class voters?
I guess my question would be, what does the word problem mean?
Also, did Trump get ahead of Democrats on working class economic issues? And have Democrats lost ground because they're bad at governing? Stay with us. We'll put those questions and more to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the Democratic Party's biggest stars. When she was first elected in 2018, she was very much an outsider, a social media phenomenon, often a critic of her party's programs and leaders. Now she's seen as more of an insider, a somewhat more senior figure, still a big star.
And so we brought her here to Studio One to ask what she thinks her party can do with its current dilemma. Democrats are out of power in Washington. They're watching President Trump enact his agenda. And they know the president has great appeal with a large part of their traditional base, the working class, people Ocasio-Cortez would feel that she would like to represent.
Here's some of our conversation. If you had to pick one word, what is a word that describes the state of your party right now?
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