AOC does not name Joe Biden in 90-second speech nominated by Bernie Sanders at DNC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declined to name Joe Biden because she delivered a short speech at the Democratic National Convention endorsing her progressive mentor Bernie Sanders for president.

The New York Congresswoman spoke of Mr Sanders’ second nomination second, shortly before his rival Mr Biden was confirmed as the party’s official candidate in the November presidential election.

“I want to thank everyone who works for a better, more just future for our country and our world,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said, speaking after the Vermont Senator was formally nominated by Labor activist and attorney Bob King.

She said she was trying to create a “mass popular movement dedicated to tackling the wounds of rational injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia”.

When Mr Sanders, 78, announced in April that he was ending his campaign for the presidency, after Mr Biden made a series of stunning primary gains to breathe life into a run that appeared dead, he said his name on the vote would remain and that he would continue to gather delegates.

The aim was not in vain, he said, as some critics have argued, but rather to put pressure on Mr Biden to take more progressive policies.

That has already resulted in a succession of policies that are in line with Mr Sanders’ views on points concerning the economy, the environment and criminal and racial justice.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, 30, praised the campaign of Mr Sanders and other progressive candidates who are “reintegrating systems of immigration and foreign policy that distract them from the violence and xenophobia of our past”.

She said it was a movement that realized “the unsustainable brutality of an economy that rewards explosive inequality of wealth for the few, at the expense of long-term stability for many”.

Speaking in support of Mr Sanders, Mrs Ocasio-Cortez’s speech on Tuesday evening underlined the fact that the veteran Democratic Socialist had lost his attempt to secure the presidency for the second time.

Shortly after she spoke, Mr Biden passed the 1,991 delegation threshold and the party’s presidential candidate was officially drafted. He will accept the nomination on Thursday.

At the same time, Ms Ocasio-Cortez rejected characterizations of her speech as “one of the shortest at the DNC”. She said her appearance served a “procedural purpose” in seconding Mr Sanders’ nomination, and NBC later clarified that although she did not support Ms. Biden on Tuesday, she has done so in the past.

An irony of the contrasting fortunes of Mr Biden and Mr Sanders, which is on track to gather more than 1,000 delegates himself, is that the coronavirus pandemic and the death in police custody of George Floyd the economic and racial guilt that has further exposed his campaign attracted attention.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez pointed this out when she gave her speech.

“At a time when millions of people in the United States are seeking profound systemic solutions to our crisis of mass eviction, unemployment, and lack of health care, and espíritu del pueblo and out of a love for all people,” she said.

“I hereby secure the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for President of the United States of America.”