I think AOC and her team see this as a simple calculation:
You have roughly 100% odds to take Schumer’s Senate seat if you want it…being a Senator from New York is a huge platform to have and can be used to launch a future Governor or POTUS candidacy.
Or you can burn all of your political capital on a longshot run for POTUS at age 37 and be stuck in the House for the foreseeable future if you don’t win the POTUS nomination…
hard to think of a worse way to sell tickets than splitting the movies into “part 1: He sings all the songs you like!” and then “part 2: he commits sex crimes”.
The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.
This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary. The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.