Doing the Work
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This piece about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s performance at the Cohen hearing makes an important point:
Ocasio-Cortez confirmed from Cohen that obtaining Trump’s federal and state tax returns would help ascertain the extent of his tax evasion efforts. And she also identified other individuals, such as Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who could testify about Trump’s practices prior to Cohen’s arrival in the organization.
Notwithstanding her impressive performance, the secret to Ocasio-Cortez’s success was remarkably prosaic ― a team effort informed by the desire to uncover truth for the public’s benefit, according to staff.
“If there was one person that wasn’t involved in this question preparation and committee preparation, it wouldn’t have been as successful as it was,” said Klarissa Reynoso, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief legislative correspondent who supervised the congresswoman’s preparation for the hearing.
Working alongside intergovernmental affairs chief Randy Abreu, Reynoso began her research on Cohen last Thursday when the staff learned the date of Cohen’s committee testimony.
The professional staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform worked nonstop last weekend to draft a list of 35 questions that each Democrat on the panel could choose from, and put their own stamp on.
On Tuesday, after conferring with Ocasio-Cortez, Reynoso met with committee staff to select a question. She chose to pursue the line of inquiry about Trump’s efforts to devalue golf course property to lower his taxes.
“If we didn’t ask those questions we would be doing an injustice for the American people,” Reynoso explained. “We wouldn’t be doing our jobs.”
“She’s thinking in broad terms and she’s thinking about her constituents,” Reynoso added. “That’s what you saw in terms of the Bronx golf course.”
The original question drafted by committee staff only mentioned Trump’s Jupiter golf course. Abreu, who grew up in the Bronx’s Fordham neighborhood just outside Ocasio-Cortez’s district, suggested that they add a reference to Trump Links. The taxpayer-funded golf course in an affluent enclave of New York’s otherwise working-class 14th Congressional District was the perfect emblem of the kind of greed and cronyism Ocasio-Cortez is committed to combating, according to Abreu.
“It’s always been a good representation of the income inequality in the Bronx,” he recalled.
And Trump Links’ proximity to the Bronx-Whitestone bridge, which connects the Bronx part of Ocasio-Cortez’s district to the section in Queens, means that Ocasio-Cortez and her staff indeed see it regularly in the course of their travels in the district, which Ocasio-Cortez was sure to highlight.
Her communications abilities are impressive and important, but what will also make her more effective and allow her to rise within party ranks more quickly is that she does her homework and she cares about details. She’s good strategically and tactically too, as when she immediately recognized she’d be better off with Pelosi as Speaker. She’ll also do things worthy of criticism — she’s a politician! — but it’s impressive.