AOC pushes back on blaming progressives for Democratic House losses

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Some House Democrats do not want Pelosi for Speaker

Democrats are not pleased after failing to increase House seats; Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, pushed back against fellow Democrats blaming their losses in the House of Representatives on left-wing politicians and policies like the Green New Deal, saying that there was no “compelling evidence” for that line of attack.

“There are folks running around on TV blaming progressivism for Dem underperformance,” she tweeted.

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She said that she looked at those candidates who are blaming progressives and found that “almost all had awful execution on digital. DURING A PANDEMIC.”

Democrats had hoped to expand their majority in the House, but instead they saw that majority cut and Republicans come closer to potentially taking the chamber.

Democratic members of Congress sounded the alarm during a caucus call on Thursday, arguing that progressive policy ideas like "defund the police" and the Green New Deal were detrimental to their performance in elections.

A Democratic source told Fox News that members on the call complained that progressive rallying cries cost moderates their seats. “There's absolutely no accountability from the speaker," one frustrated Democrat said.

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"We should have won big but you know the defund the police issue, the Green New Deal — those issues killed our members. Having everybody walk the plank on qualified immunity with the cops. That just hurt a lot of members. No one's taking responsibility for it.”

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said if “we are going to run on Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine, we're not going to win," his office confirmed.

But AOC, perhaps the most well-known and influential member of the left-wing flank of House Democrats, claimed that Democratic incumbents in swing states who sponsored items like the Green New Deal and Medicare-for-all won reelection.

“So the whole 'progressivism is bad' argument just doesn’t have any compelling evidence that I’ve seen.”

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She also urged Democrats to ignore attacks from Republicans on such policies.

“When it comes to “Defund” & “Socialism” attacks, people need to realize these are racial resentment attacks. You’re not gonna make that go away,” she wrote.

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“You can’t just tell the Black, Brown, & youth organizers riding in to save us every election to be quiet or not have their reps champion them when they need us. Or wonder why they don’t show up for midterms when they’re scolded for existing. Esp when they’re delivering victories,” she added.

Fox News' Sam Dorman, Mike Emanuel, Chad Pergram and Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.