AOC Jokes 'Woke 1' Era Was Crazy as Host Presses on Hong

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., just wiped away her own past fiery remarks on ABC's "This Week" Sunday by laughing and calling the current political climate a time when things were truly crazy. She referred to it as the "Woke 1" era with that specific joke about how extreme those days used to be. Host Jon Karl pressed her directly regarding Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, who is trying to soften some of her most contentious past statements like canceling Thanksgiving or shutting down prisons entirely. Hong is actively seeking the Democratic nomination in her state and has already started walking back certain views.

"I have a local city councilman that has this saying, 'Woke 1 was crazy,'" Ocasio-Cortez said while laughing, noting what she thinks matters most: assessing exactly what a candidate stands for right now. Karl pushed further to see if there was a moment the socialist movement stepped too far, bringing up her earlier support for defunding police forces. She clarified that many of those comments surfaced during the height of the COVID shutdowns when people were more open to radical change. "And I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place," she explained, adding that discussions back then proved quite fruitful.

"And I think that we all share the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible," Ocasio-Cortez stated. "I think during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today." She expressed gratitude that these candidates now have a chance to present their true selves to the electorate and define what they are campaigning on this very moment. Karl then pointed out that the national program for the Democratic Socialists of America still lists abolishing police as an official position. Ocasio-Cortez pushed back, noting she belongs to the New York City chapter rather than the national group and disagrees with all its positions. Fox News Digital reached out to both Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA for comment on this friction.

Hasan Piker recently named AOC his 2028 pick for president and said it was not even a question. Yet tensions within the organization have grown since she previously received endorsements throughout her career. In 2024, the group pulled its support for her re-election because she failed to meet their conditions, specifically opposing all funding to Israel and publicly supporting boycotts and sanctions against the country. More recently, Canary Mission reported a split among members about whether to offer an early endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez for the 2028 presidential race. Despite this infighting, a spokesperson for Canary Mission told Fox News Digital last month that an AOC presidency would give the movement more than just influence; it would grant its agenda access to the full power of the executive branch.