Democratic lawmaker slams party for being stuck in 'old ways' after AOC's oversight committee loss

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said her party was still stuck in their "old ways" while reacting to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's failed bid to be the top Democrat Oversight Committee chair, and suggested they were too focused on seniority.

"While I think both are absolutely qualified, I do think that within the Democratic Caucus, we are really stuck in our old ways of doing things which is you get there by seniority. And so if you’ve been there longer, you get the post, and I don’t think we fully sit there and say, ‘who may be best equipped for this moment?’" Crockett said.

Ocasio-Cortez lost the bid to be the top Democrat on the committee to Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who is more moderate. The 74-year-old lawmaker's win over Ocasio-Cortez was seen as a blow to progressives.

"I think that America is looking at us and saying, wait a minute, we lost the election, and we know that the Senate lost seats, now, the House we picked up seats, right? But I think they are saying, we are looking towards y’all to show us you’re willing to shake it up if it means we can move this country forward," Crockett said. 

AOC'S LOSS IN BID FOR HOUSE COMMITTEE CHAIR SIGNIFIES GENERATIONAL CHOICE FOR DEMOCRATS

Crockett said the Oversight Committee would be in good hands under Connolly, but said switching up the leadership more frequently would benefit Democrats. 

"I think that within the caucus we will have conversations about how we do leadership, because on the Republican side, they have term limits and so you can’t sit in those posts very long, so they end up shipping out their leadership a lot more frequently than we do on the Democratic side," he said. 

Ocasio-Cortez's loss was criticized by several members of the media, including MSNBC's Jen Psaki, who said it was an obvious chance for Democrats to show they learned from the results of the election.

"This is one of the few committees in Congress that actually generates national attention or media coverage. Under Jamie Raskin, it became a critical platform for countering Republican misinformation. And while I have deep, deep respect for Speaker Pelosi… and nothing against Congressman Connolly at all, this felt like an obvious chance to apply some of the lessons we should've learned from the November election," Psaki said.

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Psaki added that Democrats had passed over "one of the youngest, most media-savvy members of Congress for a key public leadership role."

MSNBC's Chris Hayes also blasted the Democrats for passing on AOC, and signaled out former House Speaker Pelosi specifically for whipping votes for Connolly.

"But now Pelosi whipped votes to make sure that Connolly got the Oversight job over the young star in the party, even as the 84-year-old Pelosi is recovering from hip surgery after suffering a fall. It feels like a moment of genuine madness," Hayes said. "And Democrats are not taking this issue seriously, despite everything that’s happened. But they need to."

"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin also took issue with Ocasio-Cortez's loss and spoke out in favor of her progressive policies, which she argued should be popular among all Americans.

"She has been demonized by the right, and she’s been demonized as this, like, too progressive far-left person, and I want to try to set the record straight because if she is too progressive, then the Democrats really are going to lose the working class," Hostin said Wednesday.