Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was confronted on Sunday over her electric-vehicle hypocrisy.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” moderator Margaret Brennan asked Ocasio-Cortez how owning a Tesla squares with her promise to purchase an electric vehicle made by union workers.
“You were quoted back in July saying you look forward to buying a union-made electric vehicle. But you currently have a non-union-made Tesla. UAW already makes some electric vehicles,” Brennan noted. “So, is it a problem with the quality? Is it a problem with the style? Is the market just not there?”
Incredibly, Ocasio-Cortez excused the contradiction by citing the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine.
“Our car was purchased during the pandemic, when travel — before a vaccine had come out. So, travel between New York and Washington, the safest way that we had determined was an EV,” she explained. “But that was prior to some of the new models coming out on the market that had the range available.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on “Face the Nation” | full interviewyoutu.be
According to Ocasio-Cortez, she and her fiancé are “looking into” trading their Tesla, but did not say when exactly that would happen.
“Hopefully, we will soon,” she said.
Tesla is the only major U.S. auto manufacturer whose workers are not unionized. Brennan’s question came as Ocasio-Cortez reiterated her support for union workers and the United Auto Workers strike.
At the time of Ocasio-Cortez’s vehicle purchase, the only union-made EV option was the Chevrolet Bolt. There are now a handful of additional options on the market. Still, it doesn’t explain how Ocasio-Cortez provided on Sunday basically the same answer that she gave last year.
Ocasio-Cortez told Bloomberg News last May that she wanted to trade her Tesla.
“At the time [of the purchase] it was the only EV that could get me from New York to Washington on like one, or one-and-a-half charges,” she told the news outlet. “I would love to switch.”
And yet, more than 16 months later, she hasn’t.
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