AOC’s chief of staff quits; had angered House Democrats

One of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top lieutenants is leaving her office weeks after he compared moderate Democratic House members to southern segregationists.

Saikat Chakrabarti — a former Wall Streeter and tech guru who worked on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and pushed Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 candidacy — is going to work for New Consensus, a group that advocates for a Green New Deal.

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“I am extraordinarily grateful for his service to advance a bold agenda and improve the lives of the people in NY-14,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx/Queens) said in a statement distributed to several news outlets.

Chakrabarti, 33, angered some of Ocasio-Cortez’s colleagues early in July when he took to Twitter to compare moderate Democrats to southern segregationists.

“Instead of ‘fiscally conservative but socially liberal,’ let’s call the New Democrats and Blue Dog Caucus the ‘New Southern Democrats,’ ” Chakrabarti wrote in a tweet that is now deleted. “They certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.”

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Chakrabarti made a veiled allegation of racism against Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) after she voted in late June for a bipartisan bill to appropriate money to government operations on the southern border. Chakrabarti said of Davids: “Her votes are showing her to enable a racist system.”

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That drew a sharp rebuke from the official House Democrats’ Twitter account, which is managed by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn): “Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color?”

That tweet has been deleted too.

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The feud led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to rebuke Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive House Democrats. “You got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK,” Pelosi reportedly said.

New Consensus calls the Green New Deal “a sweeping economic mobilization to build a clean and just economy.” Chakrabarti is considered one of the architects of the Green New Deal movement.

Ocasio-Cortez’s media spokesman, Corbin Trent, is also reportedly leaving her Congressional office to work on her 2020 re-election campaign.

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