Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and a group of freshman Democrat members of the House of Representatives attempted a major political stunt to embarrass Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday, but it backfired badly.
As noted by The Hill, the group of freshman lawmakers — led by the 29-year-old socialist — literally had no idea where to find McConnell’s office.
They began their journey by walking over to the Russell Senate Office building to deliver the letter to McConnell, which demanded that he allow the Senate to vote on the House bills to reopen the government.
The first problem is that he doesn’t work from that office.
Secondly, none of the bills passed in the Democratic-controlled House allocate funding for the border wall, so McConnell knows they won’t pass in the Senate, and if they did, President Donald Trump wouldn’t sign them.
After getting lost the first time, the group then set their sights on McConnell’s Capitol office. When they arrived, they found that McConnell wasn’t there, either.
House Dem Freshman members including Katie Hill, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & Lauren Underwood went to McConnell’s office in Russell Building & delivered a letter signed by more than 30 Freshman Members urging him to take up & pass House-passed legislation to end the shutdown. pic.twitter.com/O6K7I2hKDS
— Jason Donner (@jason_donner) January 16, 2019
So, they delivered the letter to McConnell’s deputy chief of staff, Don Stewart, who informed the liberal lawmakers and the massive group of reporters following them that he would deliver the letter “as I do with every single letter that comes into this office.”
Ocasio-Cortez then turned to the cameras and argued that McConnell was avoiding them, suggesting that he was running around Congress deliberately hiding from them.
“Eight-hundred thousand people don’t have their paychecks,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
“So where’s Mitch?” she said, before then answering her own question, “He seems to be running away from us.”
"Where's Mitch?" -Rep. Ocasio-Cortez@allinwithchris pic.twitter.com/CjCvojBCLp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 17, 2019
As a last resort to salvage their political grandstanding, the group then decided to storm the Senate Republican cloakroom and McConnell’s Russell office.
Their goal was to deliver the letter, but they didn’t bring enough copies.
Then, Ocasio-Cortez was forced to ask the Stewart to use McConnell’s copy machine in his office, which he allowed the Democrats to do.
Following that, the group of lawmakers left, sat in the back of the Senate chamber, waited, and then left again after realizing the Senate floor was empty because nothing was on the schedule — which they could’ve reviewed — for Wednesday afternoon.
At one point, the 30 Democratic lawmakers walked outside and delivered a message to the media about how the “old ways” of Washington, D.C., must change.
None of the Democrats who spoke to the media offered any compromise or expressed a willingness to work with Republicans to reopen the government and provide funding for the border wall.
Instead, they blamed Trump for the shutdown, accused McConnell — who is 76-years-old — of running away and hiding from them, and didn’t say a word about allocating any funding for a wall on the border.
WATCH: A group of House Democratic freshman walked out of the Capitol toward the offices of Mitch McConnell to demand that the Senate majority leader hold a vote on House-passed bills to reopen the government. pic.twitter.com/IaYg1LOP5m
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 16, 2019
The entire spectacle ended with the group leaving copies of the letter with McConnell’s office, where they apparently hope he will read it and “run train” on the partial government shutdown.
Despite the media attention, it’s unclear why Democrats thought their stunt was a good idea.
The group should have wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding to know why almost three dozen Democrats skipped town last weekend and traveled to Puerto Rico for a fancy retreat.
Democrats are so worried about the partial government shutdown and federal workers being furloughed that over 30 Democrats joined by 109 lobbyists and corporate executives took charter flights to luxury resorts, saw the Broadway show Hamilton, and enjoyed the beach.
As evidenced by the retreat, Democrats were clearly far more concerned with their sun tans than reopening the government and protecting the American people.
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