AOC warns Biden is experiencing a 'collapse of support among young people'
Biden's approval rating is 45%, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading voice for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, said Thursday that President Biden is experiencing a "collapse of support among young people" who helped propel him to victory in 2020.
"We need to acknowledge that this isn’t just about middle of the road, increasingly narrow band of independent voters," she told NY1 on Thursday, according to the New York Post.
"But, this is really about the collapse of support among young people, among Democratic base, feeling like they worked overtime to get this president elected and they aren’t necessarily being seen."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is joined on stage by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during the Climate Crisis Summit at Drake University on November 9, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Ocasio-Cortez's criticisms of Biden and moderate Democrats stretch back years, as she told New York Magazine in January 2020 just before the Democratic presidential primaries, "In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party."
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More recently, she blasted the president for "gloss[ing] over" key issues during his State of the Union address earlier this month, including the "crisis in education" and ballooning student loan debt.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I do think that there are some things that were left unsaid in which we’re really gonna have to work on as a party," she told MSNBC after the address.
President Joe Biden delivers his state of the union address to Congress in the Capitol on March 01, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarahbeth Maney-Pool/Getty Images))
President Biden vowed to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt as a candidate but has so far failed to deliver on the promise, despite having the executive power to do so, according to Ocasio-Cortez.
"It is Biden’s power and ability to cancel student debt, and nobody else’s," she told NY1 on Thursday night.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference about student debt outside the U.S. Capitol on February 4, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Biden's poll numbers have plummeted in recent months, with just 45% of voters now approving of his job performance, according to a Fox News poll released on Thursday.
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Young voters were instrumental in Biden's 2020 victory, as he carried the 18-29 cohort by a 25-point margin. Turnout among young people also surged in 2020, going from about 39% in the 2016 election to about 50% when Biden defeated former President Donald Trump, according to a Tufts University report.