Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Interview With Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Interview
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Well, you know, I think rulings like this, and I think we've seen from the FDA and also from activity in Congress that some of these rulings, I think we've been preparing and anticipating for there being these egregious overreaches by members of the judiciary appointed by a right-wing Republican Party, whose goal for a very long time was to just pack these Courts with partisan Judges often under qualified or completely unqualified for the for their role.
And so there has been thought I believe given to this. Senator Ron Wyden has already issued statements, for example, advising what we should do in situations like this, which I concur, which is that I believe that the Biden administration should ignore this ruling.
I think that we, you know, the Courts have the legitimacy, and they rely on the legitimacy of their rulings. And what they are currently doing is engaged in an unprecedented and dramatic erosion of the legitimacy of the Courts.
It is the Justices themselves through the deeply partisan and unfounded nature of these rulings that are undermining their own enforcement.
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You know, I think the interesting thing when it comes to a ruling is that it relies on enforcement. And it is up to the Biden administration to enforce, to choose whether or not to enforce such a ruling.
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Well, no, of course. I mean, I do think that this -- that it raises these important questions, and do think that when we look at, and there are serious questions that the FDA and the Biden administration is going to have to figure out and how exactly we map this out.
But on the other hand, what we are also seeing is a power grab over our Courts in which the laws passed by Congress, and the rules and policies passed by the executive branch now are going to require unanimous consent from 650 District Court Judges, many of which are appointed with even, you know, the American Bar Association, saying that they are completely unfit for the role.
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And they weren't just conservative, they were completely unqualified, and you know, the American Bar Association, along with many other organizations, they issue recommendations or assessments, oftentimes, some of them are nonpartisan, about how qualified a candidate maybe to be, you know, nominated for the bench, and many of them were completely unqualified.
And Republicans knowingly put these folks on the bench because they -- you know, between nominations with the Federalist Society and other organizations knew that they would get outcomes like these. And this is an effort to really subvert the will of the American people who elect their legislators and who elect their leaders to enact the policies that they are accountable to.
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And that is exactly what makes this ruling different. This is not about a case where a Judge is calling balls and strikes on what is within the bounds of the law and not.
Mifepristone has been legal and in the market for 23 years.
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This is like someone coming out and a Judge just coming out and outlawing Claritin or aspirin or Plan B, because they felt like it. I mean, the contents of this Judge's ruling is frankly shocking, and it should be appalling to anyone who practices law, because it is so unfounded, it is insulting, I believe to any profession in the law, because it is pure conjecture, pure conjecture.
As you mentioned, there is no medical evidence, there is no new study. This is a ruling that happened because they could and because they wanted to.
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I think what we need to see here, and we saw -- and there is precedent for this and the precedent for it escalated in the Supreme Court back, you know, a hundred years ago, when there were these mounting pressures with then FDR and the Supreme Court, where there was concern about the Supreme Court, truly expanding its reach and abusing its power.
And when we have a system of checks and balances, there is the question of who is the check on the Supreme Court. You have the check on the presidency, you have the check on Congress through veto power, and you have the check on the presidency with overriding. You have to check on both with the Supreme Court in their rulings.
But what is the check on the Supreme Court? And that is up to the President of the United States and Congress.
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We know that that it absolutely was not. We know that -- and there is precedent for this, you know, while protest is not a normal occurrence on the House floor, it happens all the time.
We saw John Lewis lead a sit-in on the floor of the United States Congress. You saw the -- you know, the unseeming behavior from House Republicans, even during the State of the Union yelling and hooting and hollering from the National Republican Party during the President's State of the Union. Were these people expelled? Was there even an ethics, you know, question brought up to this? No, there was not.
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There was a shush, right, and so what we're also seeing here and there are so many levels before expulsion, naturally, there's even censure, there is striking the word, there is --
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Pardon?
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I think this is about the fascist takeover of our State Houses that Republicans have invested in, in the last several decades. This is about a naked abuse of power. This is about disenfranchising Democrats in States where there is extreme levels of voter suppression.
And it was also about racism. It was deeply about racism. From the comments, the absolutely disrespectful and denigrating comments made to the Black members of the Tennessee House, to the fact that these Republicans voted to expel after charging three of these members, they expelled two Black male legislators, and they voted to acquit in a way or they voted to not expel the sole White woman, Representative Gloria Johnson, who has been a phenomenal ally.
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Yes. And they have no defense. There is no defense and we have not heard any rational explanation for why that is, and it is so important that we recognize this for what it is, and that we see this for what it is because if we do not, then we will not take the proper actions to stop it.
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Of course. Thank you so much.
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