AOC 'groans' at prospect of Biden presidency: 'In any other country we would not be in the same party'

New York congresswoman has endorsed Bernie Sanders

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is said to have groaned at the prospect of Joe Biden being elected president, and said that in any other country they would not be members of the same party.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, 30, the youngest woman elected to Congress, is among a group of progressive members of the Democratic Party to have one of endorsed Mr Biden’s rivals, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.

In an interview with New York magazine, the congresswoman was asked about the former vice president, who currently leads national polls in the race to select a 2020 challenger to Donald Trump, and said “Democrats can be too big of a tent”.

Asked about the prospect of Mr Biden entering the White House again, albeit as president, she is said to have groaned.

“Oh God,” she added. “In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America, we are.”

Mr Biden, 77, has sought to present himself as a moderate Democrat, who can work with Republicans to get things done, suggesting the nation is not seeking a radical overhaul.

By contrast, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, Mr Sanders, 78, and 70-year-old Elizabeth Warren, represent the party’s progressive wing. Ms Warren has said the nation needs “big, structural change to solve the deep, systemic problems we face as a country”.

This is not the first time Ms Ocasio-Cortez had clashed with Mr Biden.

Last year, she said his plans to confront climate change were insufficient.

“I will be damned if the same politicians who refused to act then are going to try to come back today and say we need a ‘middle of the road’ approach to save our lives,” she said, at a rally for her Green New Deal policy.

Mr Biden hit back: “I’ve never been middle of the road on the environment. Tell her to check the statements that I made, and look at my record and she’ll find that nobody has been more consistent about taking on the environment and a Green Revolution than I have.”

While the former vice president has praised the energy of politicians such as the congresswoman from New York’s 14th congressional district, after she and other progressives were targeted by Mr Trump, he also criticised the media for suggesting they were representative of the Democratic Party as a whole.

“You all thought that what happened was the party moved extremely to the left after Hillary, ” he told Axios. “She’s a bright, wonderful person. But where’s the party? Come on, man.”