Overview
- Ocasio-Cortez, in a Thursday interview on Ilana Glazer’s It’s Open podcast, said “Black Americans really created democracy in this country.”
- She added that the United States was “apartheid” until the 1960s and linked real democracy to the 1963–1965 civil and voting rights gains.
- Right-leaning outlets including the Daily Caller, Breitbart, and Townhall criticized the comments as historically wrong and accused her of ignorance.
- Breitbart also highlighted reporting on her campaign spending, citing payments to a psychiatrist who specializes in ketamine therapy and a celebrity makeup artist.
- The dispute turns on whether American democracy is defined by the founding framework or by the later expansion of voting rights that brought broader participation.