MSNBC’s Chris Hayes asked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night about speculation that Senate Democrats failed to reach a funding agreement with the Trump administration because Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is worried about facing a primary challenge in New York. “This is so not about me,” she said. “If those senators think that we’re having a shutdown because of me, they’re free to enter my office and negotiate.”

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC: Let me ask you this. There are some people I have seen who have the following theory of why Senate Democrats have not cut a deal, where they give eight votes and move along. And that is that Chuck Schumer is worried about a primary challenge from you, and is worried about the politics to his left flank. And so because of that worry about a primary challenge-he’s going to shut down the government. Ergo, it is AOC’s fault that the government is shutting down, or that you are somehow the fulcrum of this. And I want to just ask you straight up: are you planning to primary challenge him? Do you think that’s why he’s doing this? REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: This is so not about me in this moment. This is about people being able to insure their children. And I will say, because I saw some senators speculating about this, and I saw some Republican members of Congress saying, Oh, well, if we have this shutdown, it’s because of AOC. Well, if that’s the case, my office is open and you are free to walk in and negotiate with me directly. Because what I’m not going to do is tolerate 4 million uninsured Americans because Donald Trump decided one day that he wants to just make sure that kids are dying because they don’t have access to insurance. That’s what’s not going to happen. And so if those senators think that we’re having a shutdown because of me, they’re free to enter my office and negotiate. Because what we’re not going to do is allow millions of people in this country to not be able to afford their insulin and their chemotherapy. So come strike a deal with me, if that’s what they really think is going on.

Here’s the full interview via MSSBC:
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