AOC: If someone committed a crime and they are guilty of a crime then they should be prosecuted under the same rule of law that any layperson and any citizen should be subject to.
AOC: At the end of the day we’re here to do a job. The same way I had to clock in when I had to work at a resturant, we got to clock in and do our work here.
AOC: This is a historic moment for our country. This is one of the largest classes that we have seen.. some people have been saying, depending on how many flips we have, since 1932 or 1934. And what is so exciting about that is that this is a mandate for change. And so I’m very, very excited to get to know so many people from across the country, and what they want to bring and change
AOC: What voters have recognized on Tuesday is that President Trump says one thing and he does another. He said that he wasn’t gonna get us into new wars. He said he was gonna lower prices. He got us into Iran, and then he shot up prices across the board.
It’s the same thing here, where he is now going on television saying that immigration went too far, while also, in the same week, appointing Stephen Miller, and neo-Nazi, and the architect of the absolute most brutal immigration policies that are dragging people out by their ankles and mothers in the streets, to be his chief of staff at the White House, who is essentially the person that will be dictating and has the most power and influence over the decisions that the president makes.
AOC: When I ran for House Oversight Committee chair, I had to call through every single member of the Democratic caucus in like two weeks. I had to make 212 phone calls. Well, more than that. I had to have 212 conversations, phone conversations, and then follow-up conversations. So all in all, it was probably several hundred phone conversations in two weeks, separate from my day job. And so I basically lived on a couch, just talking on the phone, making my case to every member of the Democratic caucus.
I ran against someone with much more seniority, which matters a lot. And I was challenging a very established order in the way that Democrats make decisions, which is historically whoever's been here the longest gets it in terms of committee chairs. And I wanted to challenge that order of thinking. I knew that I was fighting an uphill battle, but I felt very strongly that, having had the experience that I had on the committee, I knew how to go after the Trump administration. I knew how to go after corrupt corporate
AOC: DC political consultants “almost completely unaccountable”
“Whether they win a race or lose a race, their relationships keep them in that money flow more than their efficacy and their results, and they are almost completely unaccountable when they get things wrong. They very rarely ever say that they got it wrong. They rarely say how they’re going to fix it. It’s horrible."
"I think a lot of money is wasted in that aspect of things.Again, it’s not to say all of them are bad, but it is to say a lot of them get their work more through, I would argue, connections than merit"
AOC: I am not running for speaker. It is not my ministry. And it's not to say that — and I know that might make some people mad or what have you, but I'm with the people. I am an organizer. And there are internal-facing jobs and responsibilities and leadership positions, and there are external-facing responsibilities and leadership positions.
For me to be speaker, I would have to give up my public platform, I would say, or it would be much harder. And my primary responsibility would be tending to the House majority, spending all of my time both doing these things. And it's not to say that I don't have capacities like this, but there are certain external-facing talents, internal-facing talents, and a combination of those talents.
AOC: People have entrusted us with power, and they have entrusted us to use that power to make changes and make their lives easier, to hold this administration and the law breaking and the corruption accountable. And if we do not do that, I think people will keep changing leadership until they get the results and the outcomes they want.
Rightfully so, and so if people aren’t standing up and demanding these changes and implementing them, then we’re going to keep seeing these shifts. And that’s how I feel, and that’s how I’ve always approached this job.
AOC: We have to put the oxygen mask on the country first. Republicans cut a trillion dollars out of our healthcare system, and they programmed into the law a Medicaid cliff that starts on January 1st. Democrats don’t get sworn in until like January 3rd. But one of the first orders of business is saving Medicaid. I believe we’ll have investigations that will start almost immediately, and proactive laws
AOC: When I first got elected, nobody even knew what AIPAC was, and very few people knew what a super PAC was. People knew money in politics was a problem, but they didn’t really know what lobbies were influencing our politics and how. Whether through super PACs or everything else. Now people are more in tune than ever, whether it’s data centers, AI, how Elon is dumping money..
AOC: A note for Gen Z. If you want to understand millennial cringe, what you all call millennial cringe, this earnestness, imagine all the seats we flipped last night. That feeling, plus, on top of it, electing the first Black president ever. And on top of that, you did it the first time you ever voted. That hits generationally. You’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
And because you did it the first time you ever voted, you’re like, ‘Yeah, we can change the world. Why not? We did it the first time. Let’s just do it again.’
AOC: I hope everyone’s got their costumes for tomorrow. I hope everyone’s got their candy ready. You still got some time. I know there’s probably at least one person here that just remembered that tomorrow’s Halloween. So, I’m sure there’s a Party City open late night, late at night, to help you guys get it together.
AOC: People are more open than they have ever been before to connect to their neighbors, to hear a different story, to be willing to entertain and support a new path forward, one that doesn’t prey on our division and the ugliness of bigotry and separation.
But people are willing to fight for each other, fight for someone they don’t know. And they’re willing to fight for a working class and for working people, and to not just put our differences aside, but to embrace the diversity of our country
AOC: The Trump administration is treating the highest offices in this country like the Trump family business. Every single day we are seeing people holding sacred seats of public trust and trying to use that as an opportunity to cash in for themselves. While working families are told to tighten their belts, the people at the top are cashing in on the very power that we gave them.
And while the public servants who make our federal government run are facing intimidation, budget cuts, and mass firings, it’s not because of efficiency or cutting red tape. It’s because they want as few witnesses as possible to their crimes, because they don’t want the public to have any say in how our government is run
AOC: I want to remind every person in this room that as days go on and in the present moment, it can often feel like the American dream is less possible and more out of reach by the day. We cannot acquiesce to that belief. We cannot give up to this idea that the rich will always keep getting richer and the poor will always keep getting poorer and that the middle class will be wiped out completely. We have to stand up for ourselves
AOC: We want to transform the coalitions that are possible and understand that we can work to deliver victories that unite people across geography, difference, identity, class, income because we all share a belief and a value that this country is for everybody and that working people should come first in America
AOC on what she meant by ‘Woke 1.0’:
“What I was referring to, even in the context of that interview, was how we make the progressive movement one that isn’t rooted in judgment, castigation, or being closed off. To me, it’s about pivoting: fighting for the same things and not changing our principles, but doing so in a way that welcomes people, including those who perhaps weren’t always exposed to or educated about some of these issues and fights.”
AOC: When most people run for office, they run very often as a second act or they run after a long career in lower levels of the ballot. But I was put in a very unique position. I was the youngest woman in history to get elected to congress. When you start your congressional career at 50, you’ve lived a lot of life.
People have pursued education to the extent that they wanted to, their first carrers to the extent that they wanted to, family to the extent that they wanted to. And I got elected at the beginning of a lot of my life.
So I’ve often tried to approach this as how do I do the most good and also try to have the same experiences that everyone else has tried to have. And how do I balance that with what is best for the country.