The unsung hero of Trump’s fraud case: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The unsung hero of Trump’s fraud case: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The New York rep's first big in Congress? Exposing Trump's fraud so Attorney Tish James could investigate him
The core of the article is this exchange between AOC and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen at his hearing before the oversight committee, which started off the fraud investigation:
Ocasio-Cortez: To your knowledge, did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?
Cohen: Yes.
Ocasio-Cortez: Who else knows that the president did this?
Cohen: Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman and Matthew Calamari.
Ocasio-Cortez: And where would the committee find more information on this? Do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to compare them?
Cohen: Yes, and you would find it at the Trump Org.
Definitely give the whole thing a read, though.
I watched that live and she was sharp as fuck during the whole thing. Really impressed the hell out of me. We need more like her.
I watched this live and it was masterful. Obviously Cohen was a willing participant but she asked exactly the questions that would lead to criminal investigations. Everyone in the room knew it.
Excuse me, Matthew what?
Matty Calamari, he works for Franky Lasagna and Giulio Gnocci. Notorious mob family, those Calamaris
And a side of seafood sauce. And can we get another round of drinks too?
In fact, there's substantial evidence that progressives may put an even higher value on opposing corruption than their more moderate colleagues. For instance, progressives like Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania were among the first to call for the resignation of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., after his recent indictment on bribery and corruption charges. This isn't just about political progressives also being people of conscience. I think they understand how intertwined corruption and authoritarian politics are, and understand you can't fight one without fighting the other.
Authoritarians like Trump gain power by exploiting public cynicism. The more that voters believe that all politicians cheat the system, the more decent citizens will give up engaging meaningfully in politics at all. Eventually, the only people left in politics are the ones with no vision of a better world beyond a bitter desire to stick it to racial minorities, LGBTQ people and women. Getting people to believe in equal justice and functional government is a necessary prerequisite if folks like Fetterman and Ocasio-Cortez are to make any progress on the social and economic issues that matter most to them. It makes sense that AOC opened the door for the massive lawsuit that may bring Donald Trump's business empire crashing down. Maybe the main reason she's not taking more credit for that is that in the here and now she's busy trying to expose the corruption of House Republicans.
A well-written article and a fantastic response to the "wHaT hAvE pRoGrEsSiVeS aCcOmPlIShEd" concern trolling from centrists.
It's well-written but it misses the obvious point. Centrists get platforms to speak about corruption because there's absolutely zero danger they will do anything fundamental to upset the gravy train. They'll wag their fingers at the too-blatant-about-it grifters while leaving the system fundamentally intact.
Yup. Give the mic to the person who will condemn but not take action. They need to be heard!
Let’s hope for more like this.
"wHaT hAvE pRoGrEsSiVeS aCcOmPlIShEd" concern trolling from centrists.
That's not concern trolling. They are proud that they block progress. It's gloating.
This is a good article but this:
So there's this unspoken assumption that progressives don't much care about corruption and accountability.
Is an absolutely asinine take. It's like they made this part up so they could talk about it for another paragraph. No one assumed progressives didn't care about corrupt. No one. That's just dumb.
I had the same reaction but to give the benefit of the doubt it feels like maybe they meant comparatively to policy issues progressives seem less concerned with individual corruptions as opposed to the overall corruption of the system.
That's a very generous reading to be fair
Just another reason Conservatives hate her, she actually does the job.