Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough Tuesday criticized freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for not yet having a local office open for constituents, saying she's paying more attention to her national image.
“When I first heard this story, I thought it was a hoax,” Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, told ex-Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, now an NBC/MSNBC political analyst. "I didn't think it was possible to serve in Congress without local constituent offices."
He added that "like you, like me, like everybody I know at least, focused on setting up that local office first, because that's where the rubber meets the road."
He said constituents care more about what's happening locally, not on a national scale.
"Nobody came up to me 10 years later and said, 'Hey, thank you so much for that press conference you had about the flat tax. Thank you so much for that press conference you had about getting rid of four cabinet agencies,'" said Scarborough. "It was, ‘Congressman, you saved our farm.'”
McCaskill said she agrees with Scarborough but still complimented Ocasio-Cortez, even though she's criticized the New York Democrat in the past.
“I’m not chastising her. I’m not criticizing her,” McCaskill said. “I’m saying don’t miss out on this part [of the job]. You’ll be sorry if you do.”
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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