Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) expressed skepticism of allying with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on issues like Israel policy, calling Greene a “proven bigot and antisemite.”

The comments have, notably, earned her the opprobrium of others on the far left, and also mark a break with some more mainstream Democrats who have urged their party to join forces with the disgruntled GOP ex-lawmaker.

“There are certain places, certain areas where I don’t think that we should ignore some folks’ record on some of these issues. It’s about where we trust intent, where we trust where those outcomes are going,” Ocasio-Cortez said at an event last week at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. 

“I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite, on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis.”

“I don’t think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists,” she continued. “I don’t think it serves us.”

The comments run counter to calls from both the far-left and certain more mainstream Democrats to praise and align with Greene and other Republicans with histories of antisemitism and other controversies who have broken with President Donald Trump over Middle East policy and other issues. 

Some on the far left have reacted with outrage.

Peter Daou, a former Democratic strategist who later served as a campaign strategist for presidential candidates Marianne Williamson and Cornel West, asserted that Greene has “far more intellectual honesty … and far more courage on the defining moral issue of our time” than Ocasio-Cortez.

Ryan Grim, a founder of the Hamas-sympathetic news site Drop Site News, said that Greene “sacrificed her political career to stand against genocide, against Trump, against the Epstein Class, and to defend the survivors of Epstein’s trafficking. If that doesn’t earn credibility I don’t know what possibly could.”

Susan Abdulhawa, a prominent Palestinian writer and activist, said, “as a leftie, I’d say [Greene] has more credibility and honor than [Ocasio-Cortez] on this matter.

Greene herself responded, “AOC refused to vote for my amendment to strip funding for Israel. She can run her mouth all she wants but votes are the only thing that matters, not a bunch of words and nasty name calling.”

At the same time, Ocasio-Cortez said that there are areas where cross-partisan alliances are needed because certain issues are “anti-establishment” and will “require a massive bipartisan consensus of people willing to come together across those differences,” like outlawing stock trading by members of Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez is seen as having ambitions for higher office, either running for Senate against Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) or for president in 2028.