AOC Praises Jamaal Bowman For Refusing 'To Take A Dime From Corporate Lobbies And Big Money'

6 months ago

Speaking at a campaign rally for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) on Saturday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about her Democratic colleague's refusal to take money from lobbyist groups.

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Transcript

00:00We know what it means to go toe-to-toe and stare down a barrel of big money.

00:06We know what it means to face long odds because all our odds are always long odds

00:13and that has never stopped us. It never will stop us.

00:19We know political intimidation. We know hardship. We know all of the reasons why we should not

00:27succeed and yet we do anyway. Jamal himself was a teacher in the South Bronx and he is under

00:39attack by the same forces that I mentioned earlier that ripped our borough apart. Racism,

00:45greed and political corruption. And why is our political establishment doing that?

00:51Because Jamal Bowman dared to speak up for Palestinians.

00:57Because he dared to join us and become one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire

01:05in Gaza. The establishment is priming Jamal Bowman because to this day, to this day,

01:14he has refused to take a dime from corporate lobbies and big money.

01:20Not Wall Street, not big real estate, not AIPAC, not anybody.

01:28They want him out because he's not bought. He's not owned by anybody because he knows that his

01:34primary fidelity and duty is to our community, our people, our towns, to White Plains, to New

01:42Rochelle, to Yonkers, to Rye, to Tuckahoe, to Co-op City. He knows those are the people that

01:51we must center at all and any cost because Jamal Bowman is for the children.

02:01And because Jamal doesn't take any big money, because he stands up for the people for whom

02:08nobody stands up for, because he does that, they want to punish him for it dearly.

02:17Thus far, AIPAC and special interests have poured nearly 20 million dollars to defeat our brother

02:25Jamal. Now I want to put that into perspective for you. That is the most amount of money and

02:36dark money poured into a primary election in American history. 20 million dollars is how much

02:45it would cost for an entire statewide gubernatorial state in one of the most expensive

02:51states in the United States of America. And they are pouring all of that money into our neighborhoods

02:57alone. Into our neighborhoods alone. Because powerful people, and these are powerful people,

03:05and it is important to reiterate that they don't give a damn about us. These Wall Street people

03:12don't give a damn about us. AIPAC doesn't give a damn about us. AIPAC doesn't give a damn about

03:20the Bronx. They don't give a damn about Westchester. Wall Street and big real estate companies don't

03:25care if we can afford a home. They care if they can uproot and uphold the people who prevent and

03:31uphold that system that keeps us from affording a home in the first place.

AOC Praises Jamaal Bowman For Refusing 'To Take A Dime From Corporate Lobbies And Big Money'

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