When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) appeared on “The View” Wednesday, co-host Meghan McCain tried to find common ground in a variety of ways.
First, she noted they both attract extreme reactions, albeit from different demographic groups.
“I’m really glad that you decided to come and talk to us,” McCain said. “I feel like you’re the boogeywoman of the right and I’m the boogeywoman of the left so it’s interesting to be talking to you.”
The conversation between the two was polite but pointed, especially when the subject turned to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the so-called “Bernie Bros.”
“The one thing that connects women on the left and women on the right, at least a lot of guest co-hosts, guests that come on, is the abuse that we have all been subjected to by the Bernie Bros,” McCain began. “It is by far the most violent, most misogynistic, the most sexist, the most harmful.” She also called it “disgusting and vitriolic.”
McCain then asked Ocasio-Cortez, a Sanders supporter, about her opinion on the Vermont senator being “attached to this deeply misogynistic, and I would go so far as to say, violent sector of people?”
The congresswoman responded that “internet culture” in general “can often be very toxic.”
She then pointed out that “whether we are cognizant of it or not, it nearly always concentrates on women, people of color, and we experience the brunt of it.”
“I think that to a certain extent we have to always reject hate, reject vitriol, and denounce that kind of behavior,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez defended Sanders’ attempts to control the behavior of his supporters, saying Sanders “works very hard... we send out messaging emails.”
She then turned to her original point that toxic behavior is bigger than the Sanders campaign.
“You know what, I’ve been subject to a lot of this stuff from all sorts of pockets from the internet. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Corrections and Border Protection] officers targeted me when I went to visit the border,” she said.
You can see the complete exchange below:
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