Fox news, Piers Morgon, are both very antogonistic as examples, and I would list Zeteo, any interview with Medhi or Pratt as a hard interview (I personally think Medhi is one of the bester interviewers in medi, hands down).

It's not a matter of it being time wasting, it's a matter of putting in reps and communicating a message. It's about rhetoric and convincing an audience. Bernie finds time for those audiences. Ro Khanna finds time for those audiences. Ilhan finds time for those interviews. And go read the comments under those interviews: MAGA trust Bernie and Ro more than they do most of their own Republicans because Bernie and Ro have put in the reps, done the laps.

And to volley the question back over the net, why does AOC get an accountability pass when all the rest of her squad cohort don't suffer from this same issue? Its not like they aren't effective or productive members of Congress, I'd argue quite the opposite. It was not the Cortesse-Massie bill that got the Epstein files released it wash the Khanna Massie bill that did, and Ro found ample time to take his messages and arguments before the people while doing so.

It still depends btw: do you call refusing to entertain a deliberately false narrative "stumbling"?

Let's take the example I gave. AOC got asked by dropsite if she supported her former chief of staff who is trying to oust Pelosi in California. A fairly gentle question from a friendly source about litterally the person who helped get you into Congress. And she fumbled it. Badly. In a way that should give any progressive pause.

When Ilhan Omar was attacked by a maga supporter at a recent event she didn't back down. She litterally got in the attackers face in a way that should have made national headlines. We're she running for another seat, it would have.

It's fair to juxtapose AOC against her cohort, and she is at the back of that pack in my view. The pack is still leagues ahead of other Democrats but that's beside the point, because now is when we need to make these evaluations.

I'd argue the exact opposite. If you mud wrestle with a pig, the pig beats you with experience and you get filthy no matter how well you do.

I think your an utter fool to believe you can get away from hard interviews. I will not support a candidate who can't handle the pressure of a campaign or read the room or the moment. That's how you get "Please clap." Jeb, and "Nothing would fundamentally change Harris".

These politicians are not your children. It's not your job to protect them. They need to be held up and have their mettle tested before we need to rely upon them to be a backstop against fascism, not after.

You not only have to be able to get jnto the mud and learn to wrestle with the pigs, you need to be able to do so and win. I'm not interested in someone who hasn't put the time in to win dirty fights.

The candidate will have to face down Tucker Carlson or Candice Owens, or any one of the innumerable shit birds who have piled up on the right.

Dude. The way she ENTERED politics was by going from volunteering for Bernie to unseating a 10-term incumbent who was the third ranking Dem representative in two years!

Yeah and for the first two years she was a fire brand. Then something happened and she became far more reserved and calculating. She genuinely changed after getting iced by Pelosi for occupying her office. I think it impacted her and she shifted her approach.

I need to see her taking harder more competitive interviews. I need to see her all over leftwing media and safe space interviews. I need to see her in spaces where her team doesn't control the questions getting asked.

Because there are other progressives who had just as difficult if not more difficult fights than AOC has had, and they don't seem to have a problem taking in those battles.