Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez said Monday that "plenty of people" were unhappy about Vice President Kamala Harris campaigning with Republican Liz Cheney.
Speaking on CNN, the progressive New York representative addressed Harris' recent events alongside Cheney, who has been vocal in her opposition to former President Donald Trump.
Host Kate Bolduan asked the Democrat if Harris' recent appearances with the former Wyoming representative hurt her appeal with progressives.
"I think there's plenty of people that aren't happy about that, and I think that is part of the nature of putting together a coalition," Ocasio-Cortez, who clashed with Cheney when they were both in the House, said.
"I don't love it, but that doesn't mean that we aren't on the same team, and we aren't on the same page when it comes to who is unequivocally the better candidate in order to win the presidential election."
Newsweek reached out to the Harris campaign for comment via email on Monday.
Trump has been in a long-running feud with Cheney after she served on the January 6 House committee and has called her "one of the dumber people in politics." Cheney said he was unfit to serve in the White House again.
Harris' embrace of Cheney has been called into question by Arab Americans, who said the Republican was tied to her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney's Middle East policies alongside former President George W. Bush. Some Muslims have already been critical of Harris over the White House's approach to the conflict in Gaza, as has Ocasio-Cortez.
Bolduan also spoke to the Democrat about how Republicans had branded Harris as a San Francisco liberal to dissuade moderates from voting for her and asked Ocasio-Cortez whether her support had also hurt the vice president's campaign.
"I don't think so, and I think that that bears out in the data and the evidence, not just a matter of personal opinion," the congresswoman said. "I work very closely alongside many of my colleagues across the House Democratic Caucus, and they are of all kinds of political opinions."
Ocasio-Cortez said moderate voters saw right through "scare tactics" and "baseless attacks" being used by Republicans to win over voters.
In recent speeches, Cheney has spoken out against comments made by Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, as well as addressing the issue of abortion.
"Even if you are pro-life, as I am, I do not believe, for example, that the state of Texas ought to have the right, as they're currently suing to do, to get access to women's medical records," she said in Wisconsin on October 21.
"There are some very fundamental and fundamentally dangerous things that have happened, and so I think that it's crucially important for us to find ways to have the federal government play a role and protect women from some of the worst harms that we're seeing."
Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus in Congress, was asked by Bolduan about Harris' policy shifts in recent years, from more progressive to more moderate, from healthcare to immigration.
"The Democratic Party is a coalition, and the stronger we make our case, and the stronger we say, 'we need to get big money out of politics. We need to tax these billionaires to the point that they stop manipulating our economy and squeezing the working class,' I know what candidate the progressive flank has a fighting chance with," Ocasio-Cortez said. "It's not Donald Trump, it's Kamala Harris."
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