'We were right': AOC takes a victory lap as Amazon halts its 'second headquarters' project near DC

03 March 2023

When Amazon, in early 2019, terminated its plans to open a "second headquarters" in Queens, far-right MAGA pundits at Fox News, Fox Business and other right-wing media outlets were quick to slam progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). The progressive congresswoman, whose district included areas of the Bronx and Queens, was a vehement critic of the proposed deal — which, she warned, was a recipe for hyper-gentrification and "displacement" of long-time Queens residents. And AOC's detractors attacked her as someone who had cost the Big Apple thousands of jobs.

The right-wing talking point that AOC was a job-killer was repeatedly endlessly in the right-wing media echochamber. And some New York City Democrats were critical as well.

But Ocasio-Cortez, who was elected to a third term in 2022, has maintained that Amazon's "second headquarters" deal would have hurt Queens residents who were already struggling with the painful effects of gentrification. And now, she is taking a victory lap after reporting from Bloomberg News' Matt Day that Amazon was "pausing construction" on its "sprawling second headquarters" near Washington, D.C. at a time when the e-commerce giant is seeing its "deepest-ever jobs cuts."

AOC, on March 3, tweeted Day's Bloomberg report and posted, "When I opposed this Amazon project coming to New York bc it was a scam of public funds, the whole power establishment came after us. Billboards went up in Times Sq denouncing me. Powerful pols promised revenge. Op-Eds & CEOs insulted my intelligence. In the end, we were right."

Ocasio-Cortez also posted, "I know I’ll never get an apology for that time, but it was worth it. We protected NYers from a scam deal to drain public dollars from schools & infrastructure in exchange for empty promises of 'Amazon jobs' w/ 0 guarantees or guardrails. Sadly, cities who took it are suffering."

In response to AOC's tweets, Twitter user @BriceArnold2 noted that the "insane" deal that she opposed for Queens "would have further inflated rent and cost of living when it's already skyrocketing in those places."

Amazon’s corporate headquarters are in Seattle, a city that has become increasingly unaffordable in recent decades. And the company's critics in Seattle have argued that it bears much of the blame for the city's high rents and homelessness, two problems that, AOC predicted in early 2019, would increase in Queens if the "second headquarters" deal went through. Amazon has a strong presence in NYC, but it ultimately looked to the Washington, D.C. area for its "second headquarters."

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