Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday during an interview with actress and liberal activist Jane Fonda that “it’s not easy” being attacked by President Donald Trump.
Fonda said during the Greenpeace USA segment, “You and I have both experienced being vilified, including by presidents, and so I’m going to ask you a question that I get asked a lot: How do you handle it?”
“Well, you know, it’s not easy, I think is the first thing to communicate,” the congresswoman responded. “The reason that these attacks happen — whether they’re on journalists, whether they’re on progressive politicians, whether they’re on women, people of color, etc. — is to exhaust us. It is to wear us down.” (RELATED: Jane Fonda ‘So Disappointed’ In Justin Trudeau)
She said people like her “don’t necessarily have the traditional institutional resources” that people “born into aristocratic families” have.
“The way that I try to endure, honestly the thing that really helps me is the grassroots support that we have.”
The “squad” member who has promoted policies like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All as a freshman member of the House of Representatives, said it would be “really hard to continue” fighting for these issues if it “was not politically popular, was not supported by everyday people [and] if people were not organizing on the ground to support this work.”
She told Fonda that the “power of grassroots movements” has made her feel that she is “part of something bigger” than herself.
Ocasio-Cortez took issue with Trump calling her “AOC” during the recent presidential debate as he said Democratic Party policy was in the hands of “AOC plus three.” (RELATED: Jane Fonda Throws Support Behind Bernie Sanders, Calls Him The ‘Climate Candidate’)
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden answers a question as President Donald Trump listens during the second and final presidential debate at Belmont University on Oct. 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Morry Gash-Pool/Getty Images)
“I wonder if Republicans understand how much they advertise their disrespect of women in debates when they consistently call women members of Congress by nicknames or first names,” she tweeted Thursday.
Fonda has promoted liberal causes since she opposed the Vietnam War. She has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is “God’s gift to the left.”