Before & after
Position changed — explanation on the recordAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez
U.S. Representative for New York
Compared on: Use 'defund the police' as a current public-safety policy frame.
THEN · JUN 2020
It looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where the choose to fund youth, health, housing etc more than they fund police.
2020-06-12 · U.S. Representative for New York
Her official House site preserved her response to the question, 'What does an America with defunded police look like to you?'
ocasio-cortez.house.gov ↗NOW · AUG 2026
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. And I actually think that the discussions that had -- that were had in that time were quite fruitful. I think that when we talk about crime today, it’s fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime in bringing crime down, right? And I think that we all share in the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible. I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.
2026-08-09 · U.S. Representative for New York
ABC This Week interview after Jonathan Karl asked whether the movement went too far and noted her brief support for defunding police.
abcnews.com ↗An explanation of the change was located in the declared source universe. Searched through 2026-08-09.
Their explanation, on the record:
“during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”Source ↗
This record moved
: Position changed — explained → Position changed — explanation on the record
Receipt: judge-taxonomy-aoc-defund-rhetoric-20260811