Democratic convention: Schumer, Ocasio-Cortez to speak Tuesday

WASHINGTON — With the Statue of Liberty as his backdrop, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, will deliver remarks at the virtual Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.

That same night, from her home in the Bronx, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will address Democrats in a 60-second video much like the short social-media dispatches she regularly shares with her 6 million Instagram followers.

The two New Yorkers — Schumer, 69, an establishment Democrat first elected to Congress in 1993, and Ocasio-Cortez, 30, a first-term member of the U.S. House widely regarded as one of the party's next generation of leaders — each appeal to factions of the party that political analysts say do not always agree on policy issues, but have largely coalesced behind former Vice President Joe Biden’s candidacy in ways they did not for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Four years ago, more than 100 supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) walked out of the convention arena the night Clinton won the roll-call vote of state delegations. But when Democrats broadcast their virtual roll-call on Tuesday night, political analysts say the optics will be far different, with the party’s progressives and moderates looking to project unity behind Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Republican President Donald Trump “has clearly united the entire Democratic Party, in the sense that whatever differences the progressive wing has with the more moderate and centrist Clinton wing of the party, we are not going to live it,” said Richard Himelfarb, a political-science professor at Hofstra University. “There’s this sense that these are not issues that should be litigated right now, that these issues in fact should be fought out afterward.”

State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, who also serves as chairman of the Nassau Democratic Committee, said “unity in the party is the most important thing that we can accomplish, because we stand a better chance of winning the election against Donald Trump.”

“I think that the [Democratic National Committee] and Joe Biden recognize that although factions in our party don't agree on everything, there’s unanimity over the general principles of what our party stands for,” Jacobs said in a phone interview. “I would agree that [Ocasio-Cortez] represents the new progressive faction of the party, but I don't want that to imply that Chuck Schumer is anything but a progressive, as is [Gov.] Andrew Cuomo, as are all of us. We just have a different view of how we get at the same place, and I think we have to respect each other's views.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s supporters and those on the left of center lane of the party have taken to social media to criticize party leaders for not giving the self-described Democratic Socialist more time to speak, describing the 60-second slot as a slight to the Sanders wing of the party, but Jacobs pushed back on those criticisms.

“I think it's a compliment to her that she's speaking,” Jacobs said. “We only have two hours a night for four nights. Time is limited, and the progressive wing of the party is being represented well, I think, by Bernie Sanders, who will be speaking for a much longer period of time. There will be other speakers who will be voicing progressive views.”

Sanders, making the rounds of the Sunday political talk show circuit, played down questions about the level of support among his supporters for Biden and asserted his former campaign rival had his full backing.

“I would say that the overwhelming majority of progressives understand that it is absolutely imperative that Donald Trump be defeated,” Sanders told ABC News’ “This Week.” “Obviously there may be disagreements. A lot of my supporters are not enthusiastic about Joe Biden. You know why? I ran against Joe Biden, but I think there is overwhelming understanding that Donald Trump must be defeated, Biden must be elected, and that the day after he is elected we're going to do everything we can to create a government that works for all of us and not just the one percent and wealthy campaign contributors.”

Schumer, in a phone interview on Monday, said he will be delivering 3 minutes of live remarks from the Liberty Warehouse along the Brooklyn waterfront, where he will touch on a number of issues including immigration reform, climate change and the push by Democrats to regain control of the Senate.

"I'm going to be speaking about the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty — it's welcoming, it's uniting, it's bringing people together, and how we need to restore that back in the country," Schumer said. 

Ocasio-Cortez, in a tweet linking to an article about her 60-second time slot, quoted a poem by civil rights leader Benjamin E. Mays.

She tweeted: “I only have a minute … only a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.”