AOC says she feels unsafe because Trump’s fixation with her is fuelling white supremacist threats
The New York representative admits feeling safer living in The Bronx over Wasington DC
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Your support makes all the difference.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has admitted she feels unsafe in Washington DC over her home in The Bronx, New York - which is fuelled, in part, by the threats she's received after President Donald Trump tweeted against her.
The New York Democrat sat down with The Breakfast Club on Tuesday morning to discuss her career in politics and the upcoming 2020 election.
She was asked how Mr Trump's tweet calling her a "wack job" last year impacted her life.
"It's very dangerous," Ms Ocasio-Cortez said about the attention Mr Trump drew to her. "I had a point last year where I would wake up in the morning and I would look at pictures of people who were trying to harm me that day over my breakfast. A lot of the time it was white supremacists, and it's very real."
People in the opposition have accused Ms Ocasio-Cortez of using her platform just to garner attention, she said. But the representative said that was not the case.
"I am not doing this for my health,' she added. "I feel safest in The Bronx. It's when I'm in DC that I feel way less safe."
Although Mr Trump was willing to call the representative a "wack job" over social media, she did not think the president would ever have the courage to say it directly to her.
"He never would," she said, challenging the president's rhetoric by adding: "Keep that same energy when you see me."
Ms Ocasio-Cortez was not surprised the president decided to tweet against her given the coverage she receives on his network-of-choice, Fox News.
"I felt it coming because he is obsessed with television and he responds to things on television," she said, "and because I am on Fox News all the time it felt like it was kind of a matter of time."
"But also he does not like attention not being on him," she continued. "He's gonna try to find a way to reel that back to him because he's a narcissist and he is good at it."
During the interview, Ms Ocasio-Cortez was also asked about her aspirations in politics and if she was considering future positions like the presidency.
But the representative shared no plans outside of her current drive to win her seat again in 2020.
"If I wanted something bigger, I would've been much more tepid," she said, referencing her progressive policy stances. "It's less about aspiring to a position as about a mission. How I can be a vessel of good."
She added: "One of the biggest mistakes [politicians make] is that everyone is always trying to be president, so it prevents them from taking courageous stances. F that. I don't think we should be making decisions on a positional aspiration."
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