WASHINGTON — President Trump predicted Tuesday that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer for his New York seat and that she will “kick his ass.”
Trump made the pot-stirring remark during a traditional pre-State of the Union luncheon for TV news personalities. The relaxed off-the-record lunch featured bass and leek soup in the White House state dining room, just hours before Trump delivers the annual address on Capitol Hill.
“I think she will kick his ass,” Trump said in a remark that he placed on the record.
But the president’s colorful prediction of a Democratic primary squabble in 2022 doesn’t necessarily portend a Democrat-bashing diatribe at the State of the Union, where his aides say he will give a “positive” and “unifying” message.
In another quote he placed on the record, Trump told TV hosts that he will give an “extraordinarily low key” speech, according to Fox News anchor Bret Baier.
Trump needled Schumer after the Senate majority leader urged senators to vote to remove him from office when there’s a final vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment. After closing arguments Monday in the Senate impeachment trial, Schumer said Republicans should join Democrats to oust Trump, calling the president a “nasty man.”
Spokespeople for AOC, a 30-year-old democratic socialist congresswoman who has become a progressive darling and national fundraising machine and Schumer did not immediately offer comment.
Ocasio-Cortez went from waitress to congresswoman in 2018 after a stunning primary victory over 10-term Rep. Joe Crowley, the powerful chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, in her Bronx-Queens district.
