Why AOC backed Sanders, not Biden, in her DNC speech — and how we've seen this before

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not mention Joe Biden during her 90-second speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, where she backed the nomination of the second-place finisher in the presidential primaries, Bernie Sanders.

But the move was not quite the snub of Mr Biden that some made it out to be, despite the insinuations of several premature, incomplete, and otherwise poorly edited tweets from prominent media outlets, including NBC News and its affiliate MSNBC.

As Ms Ocasio-Cortez later explained via Twitter, it wasn’t her role to heap praise on Mr Biden: She was pegged specifically by the Democratic National Committee to second the nomination of Mr Sanders in a show of party unity and reconciliation between its competing factions.

“If you were confused, no worries!” she tweeted shortly after her speech aired.

“Convention rules require roll call & nominations for every candidate that passes the delegate threshold. I was asked to 2nd the nom for Sen. Sanders for roll call. I extend my deepest congratulations to [Mr Biden] — let’s go win in November,” she wrote.

The Democratic party struck a deal with Mr Sanders when he dropped out of the presidential race earlier this year allowing him to keep many of the delegates he had won in the primaries so he could be formally nominated for the party’s presidential ticket, a nod of recognition to the fact he managed to capture the political imagination of a wide swath of Democratic voters.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s speech backing Mr Sanders was just one element of that symbolic gesture and part of a tradition dating back years at the convention, where thousands of delegates throw their support behind their pledged candidates based on the primary results in their states.

Of course, Ms Ocasio-Cortez could have paid Mr Biden a passing comment of endorsement, many Democratic observers complained on Tuesday.

At the 2008 convention in Denver, civil rights activist and labour leader Dolores Huerta placed then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s name in nomination but acknowledged the victor of the nominating process, Barack Obama.

“This primary season, I stand with Hillary, as she stands with Barack Obama to take our country back!” Ms Huerta said in her remarks.

But when you have just 90 seconds, as Ms Ocasio-Cortez did, every tick of the clock is precious.

And it’s not like her exclusive focus on Mr Sanders’ message set her apart from past nominating speakers.

At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii delivered a similar speech backing Mr Sanders’ symbolic nomination that year, which the Vermont Independent senator ultimately lost to Ms Clinton.

Ms Gabbard did not once mention Ms Clinton in nearly five minutes of remarks.

The Hawaii Democrat, a former Democratic presidential candidate herself during the 2020 cycle, subsequently told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser she would be voting for Ms Clinton, although the paper described her endorsement as “tempered” on account of the former secretary’s hawkish record in foreign policy matters.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, the 30-year-old progressive iconoclast who has become the primary bogeywoman in Republican campaign messaging this electoral cycle, has endorsed Mr Biden despite several pronounced policy differences and her distaste for the establishment status quo.

She co-chaired the Biden-Sanders unity task force on climate change that helped mould environmental aspects of the official Democratic party platform.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez reiterated her support for Mr Biden again via Twitter on Tuesday shortly after her speech.

“Congratulations, @JoeBiden — I deeply look forward to fighting for our future together and reclaiming our democracy in November,” she wrote, thanking the Democratic National Convention for selecting her to deliver Mr Sanders’ nomination speech.

“It’s been an absolute honor,” she wrote, adding the pro-Biden hashtags #NotMeUs and #Biden2020.

That Ms Ocasio-Cortez did not use a speech intended to pay tribute to Mr Sanders to praise Mr Biden should come as no surprise, as she has made her hesitancy to support the former vice president’s candidacy known.

“In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment and lack of health care... and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America,” she said, a not-so-subtle allusion to her belief that Mr Biden represents the old guard of Washington Democrats that have too often caved to Republicans and failed to achieve liberal results.

Just one night after the pro-life former Republican governor of Ohio, John Kasich, was given four minutes to speak at the Democratic convention, Ms Ocasio-Cortez’ message represented the other end of a broad coalition backing Mr Biden.