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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “With the ACA, there are a lot of people who cast votes…”

Featuring: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic | U.S. House, New York, District 14

AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod

Published May 8, 2026 | Video Starts at 1:02:28

It's complicated. And, you know, life is complicated. Governance is complicated, but we have to make hard decisions sometimes. You know, With the ACA, there are a lot of people who cast votes knowing that they would lose reelection. Yes. Yeah. They cast votes knowing that they would lose reelection in order to make that happen. It wasn't complicated for them. (1:02:28–1:02:34)

CLAIM

Asserts that some legislators voted for the Affordable Care Act despite knowing it could cost them reelection.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“There is virtually no place in America where you can afford apartment on a full time job on minimum wage.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 05:33-05:42
“In the last five years, billionaire wealth has doubled.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 05:55-06:01
“The filibuster in the Senate was created by a clerical error.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 45:35-45:39
“A trillion dollars was gutted out of our health care system to pay for an extrajudicial force.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:11:31-1:11:39
“The Virginia redistricting maps were just overturned this morning by judges that are largely financed by a movement of billionaires.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 02:21-02:34
“American inequality is at an absolute peak.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 02:35-02:39
“Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 03:11-03:15
“He [Jeff Bezos] laid off some of the highest qualified journalists that made it an American institution.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 03:15-03:22
“The concentration of wealth in this country has gotten so dire and so extreme that you can literally name the people who have half of the…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 07:33-07:45
“We need to abolish super PACs.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 08:41-08:44
“The court has been consumed by radical conservative judicial activists that are attacking black Americans and the right and voting rights…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 08:44-09:11
“There are, of course, open discussions about expanding the court to match the number of circuit courts that we have, going from 9 to 13…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 09:35-09:49
“We need to revisit the tax systems that we have already had in the history of our country.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 09:53-10:02
“We also need to go after monopoly power, antitrust.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 10:18-10:24
“We need to guarantee health care in America.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 10:36-10:39
“We need to raise a living wage in America.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 10:38-10:43
“We need to codify voting rights and legal representation.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 10:43-10:50
“We need to be investing in our educational systems.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 10:55-10:59
“It was the organizing of black Americans that turned America into a full democracy in the 1960s and well before that with the Voting Rights…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 14:03-14:17
“My dad, he was born while the Bronx was burning and every building around him was collapsing by the arson that was so widespread, by…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 16:03-16:21
“If you run a restaurant, your produce costs are through the roof.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 17:54-18:00
“Our actual Central systems in our economy, energy, health care, education, all of it. Food is skyrocketing.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 18:27-18:39
“I had won my primary.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 23:27-23:29
“No one knows who their member of Congress is.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 25:27-25:30
“I unseated a really popular guy.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 27:38-27:42
“I won my primary at 28, I got sworn in at 29.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 30:25-30:30
“The average age at that Congress was like maybe 60 or so.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 30:36-30:41
“My goal then was to make a conversation and to start making moves so that guaranteed health care and a litany of other things would become…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 31:23-31:42
“A lot of these algorithms and technologies are unfortunately fine-tuning themselves to be ways of hijacking human cognition.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 38:42-39:06
“A lot of companies that market themselves as tech companies are less tech companies than they just are existing industries that are going…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 41:50-42:03
“This administration is setting up huge slush funds for the AI industry.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 42:44-42:49
“They're getting preferential treatment on government contracts.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 42:49-42:53
“Jim Crow segregationists realized that they could use this clerical error as a loophole.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 45:45-45:54
“The origin of the filibuster is part of the institutionalized racism that was baked into our institutions.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 46:01-46:13
“The filibuster presently takes responsibility away from senators.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 46:41-46:52
“When everything is done through reconciliation, it also takes transparency away from the American people.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 48:23-48:46
“I still think get rid of the filibuster and let them be responsible for their own decisions.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 48:51-48:58
“The courts have been hijacked by conservative activists.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 50:08-50:13
“Redistricting in Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Missouri [was] not challenged or overturned by the courts, despite very clear…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 50:48-50:56
“Virginia was an election of 3 million Americans. This court did not overturn a map. It overturned an election.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 51:21-51:33
“We are a 50, 50 country.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 54:04-54:07
“States like Tennessee want to wipe out every black representative on the map.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 54:42-54:53
“My job is to the people of New York's 14th congressional district.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 59:08-59:13
“I'm up for a litmus test every two years. And the people who put those litmus tests on me are my voters and my constituents.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 59:50-59:58
“We want to make sure that we're governing in a way that changes materially people's lives.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:00:14-1:00:20
“In rural Vermont, the way guns show up in that landscape is very different than in Brownsville, Brooklyn.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:03:07-1:03:15
“Single payer healthcare is forever, a living wage is forever, workers rights are forever, women's rights, all of that.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:06:20-1:06:30
“House members are allowed to go onto the Senate, but Senate members are not allowed to go into the House unless they're allowed in and…”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:07:49-1:07:56
“I try to decouple our political system from money and politics.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:08:52-1:08:57
“Our health care system stands to collapse without immigrants.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:12:52-1:12:58
“Our food system stands to collapse without immigrants.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:12:57-1:13:01
“Our housing system stands to collapse without immigrants.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:13:01-1:13:04
“Your health care is going up.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:14:46-1:14:48
“Long term care for our parents and grandparents are going to skyrocket.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:14:48-1:14:53
“I do stand by those comments, it's just true.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:16:12-1:16:19
“There is bipartisan consensus on keeping and protecting stock trading in Congress.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:18:04-1:18:12
“The impact of these [research funding] cuts are devastating and we will feel them for a generation.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:19:13-1:19:19
“What gets turned off in four years does not get turned on in four years.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:19:19-1:19:24
“It will require not the same resources as before, but likely far more resources than before to even try to catch up.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:19:55-1:20:05
“A lot of these cuts and abuses of power were based on norms.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:20:09-1:20:15
“We need to put some more, I think, barbed wire around our institutions that are powering American progress.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:20:30-1:20:41
“We have to protect and put more protections around scientific research.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:21:11-1:21:20
“I don't take corporate money. The average donation to my campaign is $16.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:25:10-1:25:16
“In two years there's maybe been eight max out checks of like $2,500 to my campaign.”
AOC in Conversation with David Axelrod | Uploaded May 8, 2026 | 1:25:16-1:25:24