New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has warned America is entering a time "of fascism and authoritarianism" following the election of Donald Trump to the White House on Tuesday.
The House representative made the remark during an hourlong discussion with supporters on Wednesday which she broadcast via her official Instagram account.
Trump was elected president with at least 295 Electoral College votes, according to The Associated Press. The news agency also reported he was ahead in Arizona and Nevada, the only two states it has yet to call. He is also on track to win the popular vote. Harris conceded defeat in a speech on Wednesday in which she said Americans "must accept" the election result.
On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez said: "We find ourselves I believe in a time where there are, lets say peers, in history of mass movements of people that mobilize to protect one another in times of fascism and authoritarianism. And this is the era that we are poised to enter.
"Donald Trump has talked about turning the military on U.S. citizens that he deems his domestic political enemies. Authoritarians and people that he affiliates closely with and strong men abroad—in regimes like that, it is not uncommon to jail political dissidents or legislative opponents. This is the world that we may very realistically be entering."
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign and Ocasio-Cortez's office via email outside of regular office hours.
In October, Trump said the presidential election could be threatened by "the enemy from within" during a Fox News appearance.
"I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within," he said. "We have some very bad people, some sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military."
Ocasio-Cortez went on to defend the campaign performance of Vice President Kamala Harris and to suggest her defeat could have been the result of "misogyny."
She said: "I think it's important to also state here that Kamala Harris was given an assignment that no other person in American history was given. To construct a presidential campaign in 90 to 100 days...and have to deliver the country from an enormous fascist threat that had already been campaigning and priming the pump for essentially eight years...
"This race may not have been decided by any individual factor but misogyny is very real in this country...If Kamala Harris was Tom Harris we may have a different result today, I don't know."
The New York representative, who was reelected on Tuesday with nearly 70 percent of the vote, added her party should "get back to our roots as champions of the working class."
Wednesday also saw Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent aligned with the Democratic Party, release a statement suggesting Harris' presidential election defeat was the result of her party having "abandoned" the working class.
He said: "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.
"First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well."
These remarks sparked an angry response from Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison who described them as "straight up BS."
Harrison added: "Biden was the most-pro worker President of my life time—saved Union pensions, created millions of good paying jobs and even marched in a picket line."
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