AOC congratulates Biden-Harris before stoking flames of Democratic civil war

While the country erupted in celebration at Joe Biden's projected election win, Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez focused on the emerging fissures splitting the Democrats in a sign of the incoming president's struggles to come with the progressive wing of the party.

After a short congratulations to president-elect Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris, Ms Ocasio-Cortez spent the following two hours tweeting about the Democrats' poor showing in races down the ticket.

Read more: Joe Biden wins the 2020 US election - follow live updates

"One thing I’ll say: for the last two years, I and progressive candidates have been unseating powerful Dem incumbents supported by [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee]," she said in a tweet.

"Not *once* has anyone in the party asked me what weaknesses I’ve found in their operation. If they stop blaming progressives, we can help."

It comes after Ms Ocasio-Cortez asked why the party was listening to people who lost an election, saying they tried the approach of Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill. Ms McCaskill said in an interview on MSNBC that the party focused too much on cultural and identity issues.

On Saturday, Ms Ocasio-Cortez said that all swing-seat House Democrats who endorsed Medicare for All won, or are on track to win, re-election while responding to claims from Biden surrogate John Kasich that the far-left almost cost him the election.

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"Anyone saying this after immigrant organizers delivered [Arizona], Black grassroots flipped Georgia, [Michigan] going blue w reality-bending 94% Detroit margin +  @RashidaTlaib running up the margins in her district & Trump publicly challenging  @IlhanMN in MN and losing isn’t a serious person," she said.

She added: "The Blind impulse to blame activists and the left both demoralizes a key constituency and distracts from asking real Qs & fixing serious operational issues."

The Democrats had higher hopes heading into the 2020 election but instead lost seats in the House and are in a run-off battle for control of the Senate.  

The result has led to calls to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for someone who can unify the progressive and moderate ends of the party.

President-elect Biden will also be working to incorporate the progressive agenda of the party, with Bernie Sanders releasing an outline of his agenda for the first 100 days of Congress with a Democrat in the White House.

“In the next several weeks I will present to the Senate an agenda that I would like to see passed in the first 100 days,” he said.

It includes a Covid-19 relief package for unemployed and small businesses, end “starvation wages”, make it easier to join unions, equal pay for equal work, and Medicare for all.