Saikat Chakrabarti, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ controversial Chief of Staff is out:
From the Hill by way of the Intercept:
Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff to leave her office Source: The Hill“Saikat has decided to leave the office of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to work with New Consensus to further develop plans for a Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez communications director Corbin Trent told The Intercept in a statement.
Chakrabarti sparked outrage from members of the Democratic caucus last month after he tweeted messages attacking centrist Democrats, insinuated that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is an ineffective leader and suggesting Native American lawmaker Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) voted “to enable a racist system” by voting in favor of a Senate border aid bill that didn’t include provisions backed by progressives.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/455996-ocasio-cortez-chief-of-staff-to-leave-her-office
Chakrabarti seemed like a very smart guy, who used some rhetoric that was very dumb, if his objective was to persuade and form alliances: Chakrabarti has made statements that infuriated moderate Democrats and caused an uproar inside the House Democratic Caucus, where the tension between moderates and progressives often runs high. “Instead of ‘fiscally conservative but socially liberal,’ let’s call the New Democrats and Blue Dog Caucus the ‘New Southern Democrats,’” Chakrabarti said in a tweet that he later deleted. “They certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.” Chakrabarti also attacked Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas), one of the first Native-American women to enter Congress, over her support for a homeland security funding bill. “I don’t believe Sharice is a racist person, but her votes are showing her to enable a racist system," Chakrabarti tweeted. That remark infuriated a number of Democrats, including party leaders. news.yahoo.com/...
And Corbin Trent, AOC’s Commmunications Director is leaving to lead AOC’s re-election campaign. “With the Ocasio2020 campaign beginning to ramp up, I’ve asked Corbin to transition to the campaign full-time and he has agreed to do so," Ocasio-Cortez added. "I’m looking forward to growing the movement with him in Queens and the Bronx and across the country." news.yahoo.com/...
Here’s a solid quote from Chakrabari about his vision: AOC’s Chief of Change “To me, there wasn’t a difference between working for [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez0 and working for the movement as a whole,” he [Saikat Chakrabarti] said. “The whole theory of change for the current Democratic Party is that to win this country we need to tack to the hypothetical middle. What I think that means is, you don’t take unnecessary risks, which translates to: You don’t really do anything. Whereas we’ve got a completely different theory of change, which is: You do the biggest, most badass thing you possibly can — and that’s going to excite people, and then they’re going to go vote. Because the reality is, our problem isn’t that more people are voting Republican than Democrat — our problem is most people who would vote Democrat aren’t voting.”—www.washingtonpost.com/...
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