AOC unleashes anger after senior House Democrat gets candid about how the Trump assassination attempt changed the election

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is not happy that members of her own party see the writing on the wall.

The day after a lone gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump, Axios reported that a top House Democrat privately admitted that President Joe Biden is going to lose his re-election bid, and Democrats must now change their election priorities accordingly.

'They were having a very bad political day, and then we had this supernova event.'

"We've all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency," a senior House Democrat told the publication.

That candid admission upset Ocasio-Cortez. The New York Democrat accused her unnamed leader of employing a "kind of leadership [that] is functionally useless to the American people" and demanded that person retire.

"If you're a 'senior Democrat' that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism," she reacted. "This kind of leadership is functionally useless to the American people. Retire."

The context of the senior House Democrat's comment is about how the assassination attempt changed the political discourse around the election, which prior to the assassination attempt had primarily focused on the growing number of Democrats calling on Biden to step aside as their party's presidential nominee.

But, as the Axios story suggested, the political calculus has changed after Saturday's shocking incident.

Indeed, according to NBC News, the Democratic Party's campaign to persuade Biden to step aside has come to a "standstill."

"They were having a very bad political day, and then we had this supernova event. Now, it's frozen," one career Democratic strategist told NBC News of his own party. "If you're an advocate for: 'How do we tell the old man it's time to go?' — it's really hard to have that conversation publicly. This event blocks out the sun right now."

Another Democratic consultant told NBC News the party should refocus its energy on House and Senate races, understanding Trump's political momentum will be hard to slow down.

"The presidential contest ended last night," the Democratic consultant said. "Now it’s time to focus on keeping the Senate and trying to pick up the House. ... The only positive thing to come out of last night for Democrats is we are no longer talking about Joe Biden's age today."

Yet another Democratic insider described his party's predicament in simpler terms.

"We're so beyond f***ed," that person told NBC News.

Pollster Nate Silver, meanwhile, confirmed Monday the view relayed by the top House Democrat to Axios is a "common" view in the Democratic Party — at least privately.

"The quote isn't an outlier," he explained. "There's a great deal of reporting that many Democrats, probably including a majority of the House and Senate, think Biden is a very likely loser. But they aren't doing anything about it because they're self-interested and risk-averse."

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