Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday warned Democrats against forming alliances with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), accusing the former lawmaker of being a "proven bigot."
A student at an event hosted by the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics asked Ocasio-Cortez about working across the aisle with Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), and if she stood by comments she made in 2021 about "legitimate white supremacist sympathizers at the core of the House of Representatives caucus."
Ocasio-Cortez said she stood by the comments, and that her work with Republican colleagues has been "about where we trust intent, where we trust where those outcomes are going."
"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," she said. "I don't think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists, I don't think it serves us."
The Hill has reached out to Greene for comment.
Ocasio-Cortez also referred to Burchett, who she said has called her a "communist, and a witch, and whatever it is... But you know what? We've got to ban insider trading in Congress. And I don't -- I care about results, I care about results."
Burchett, speaking with NewsNation's Chris Cuomo in October, talked about his working relationship with the progressive firebrand and called her his "buddy" and a "friendly neighborhood Marxist."
Greene and Ocasio-Cortez have sparred since they both were elected to Congress in the years after President Trump was first elected to office.
In March 2025, Greene accused Ocasio-Cortez, a leading voice in the Democratic Party and a potential Democratic contender for the presidency in 2028, of being a "woman that has really no life experience."
"This is a woman, she's never been married, she has no children, she's never had a job other than working in a bar, and that was short term for what we understand, she's never run a business," Greene said.
Greene's criticisms toward Republican lawmakers escalated ahead of the Department of Justice's release of files connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but she maintained her critiques of Ocasio-Cortez. Her critiques of Republicans later focused on Trump. The fallout of their relationship led to her resigning from Congress in January.
After the New York Democrat claimed Greene was on a "revenge tour," Greene brushed off the remark.
"I don't want to go serve somewhere where all of my good ideas and bills I want to work on get completely stopped in a system that I think is utter failure," Greene told NewsNation's Blake Burman in November.
"The other problem with AOC is I think she's really jealous that I came into her home state, stomped around, and actually had a great conversation with the ladies on 'The View,'" the Georgia Republican added.
At least one other progressive Democrat has opened himself up to a potential alliance with Greene. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has praised Greene’s willingness to blast lawmakers and the Trump administration over the handling of the Epstein files, as she and Khanna backed the release of the files.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) credited Greene with being a “good” Republican after he suggested “elected Republicans are “doing less of representing their districts and their states than just swearing allegiance to the president of the United States.” Ocasio-Cortez is widely considered to be Sanders’ political heir.
“So I never thought that I would say this, but you have somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, ‘You know what,I was elected by my constituents; that’s who I am beholden to; not the president of the United States,’” Sanders said at a CNN town hall in October. “So there are good Republicans out there.”