Losing Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney bashes AOC for not helping party keep the House

US Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who lost in the midterms, blamed fellow New Yorker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for not doing enough to help their party keep the House. 

Maloney, who lost by 3,000 votes to GOP challenger Michael Lawler, said Ocasio-Cortez failed to support her party as Republicans are projected to win the majority in the House while the fight for the Senate remains tight. 

'I didn’t see her one minute of these midterms helping our House majority,' Maloney told the New York Times in an interview on Thursday about his loss. 

'Let’s be clear, she had almost nothing to do with what turned out to be an historic defense of our majority,' Maloney added of his party's ability to hold back a 'red wave.

'She’s an important voice in our politics. But when it comes to passing our agenda through the Congress, or standing our ground on the political battlefield, she was nowhere to be found.' 

The criticism came just as Fox News' The Five chastised Ocasio-Cortez for her claims on Election Day that additional police presence in New York City would only cause crime to rise.  

US Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who lost in the midterms, said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez failed to help their party keep the House

Maloney said Ocasio-Cortez (above) 'was nowhere to be found' during rallies to bolster fellow New York Democrats, adding that she had no hand in fighting back the 'red wave' 

Although Republicans are expected to take the House, they are projected to do so by a smaller majority than previously predicted as the fight for the Senate remains tight

Maloney was among the Democrats who lost to Republican challengers in a contentious race to take Congress during the midterms. 

Although Republicans are expected to take the House, they are projected to do so by a smaller majority than previously predicted. 

As of Thursday night, neither Democrats nor Republicans have the necessary 218 members to make up the majority as ballots continue to be counted.  

Maloney commended his fellow Democrats' efforts to hold back the 'red wave,' but said Ocasio-Cortez had no part in it. 

'[She] didn’t pay a dollar of dues. Didn’t do anything for our frontline candidates except give them money when they didn’t want it from her,' Maloney told the Times.

He claimed that despite her popularity in her own district, where she easily won re-election, she does not have much sway over Democrats elsewhere.  

'There are other voices who should be heard, especially when suburban voters have clearly rejected the ideas that she’s most associated with, from defunding the police on down,' Maloney said. 

He warned that New York Democrats needed to change to appeal to more voters, especially after Gov. Kathy Hochul's close raise against Republican Lee Zeldin. 

'I do think that Democrats should always seek to understand what we can do better, and we are clearly, at least here in New York, not connecting well with suburban voters who strongly opposed the top of the ticket and with that, candidates down ballot.' 

Ocasio-Cortez scoffed at Maloney's criticism and said she worked to raise money for him and other moderates during the campaign season 

On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez hit back against the defeated congressman, saying she did help fundraise and campaign for fellow Democrats. 

'[Sean Patrick Maloney] courted me for donations to swing races & it was the 1st thing I did this term,' she tweeted. 'Over a quarter million for Dems this cycle, DCCC facilitated some & now he denies it.

She also scoffed at Maloney's criticism and that of other moderate Democrats trying to blame her for losing the House. 

'Many moderate dems + leaders made it very clear that our help was not welcome nor wanted. Despite our many, many offers,' she said. 'Yet found ways to try to help from afar. 

'So for them to blame us for respecting their approach in their districts is laughable. Take some ownership.'  

Maloney's condemnation comes after Jeanine Pirro and Greg Gutfeld, co-hosts of The Five, called the Democratic congresswoman a 'frickin' moron,' following her comments before Election Night claiming that a larger police presence in the subways would only cause crime to rise.

Jeanine Pirro (above) of Fox News' The Five, chastised US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her claims that additional police presence in New York City would only cause crime to rise

The liberal was taking aim at New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul for bolstering the NYPD's ranks in the city's transit system.  

'She is so stupid, it is stunning,' Pirro said on Thursday. 'More cops cause more violence on the trains, on the subways? Did it ever occur to her there might even be more crime but for the fact that there were more police there?' 

Gutfeld added: 'That is either the product of a dishonest mind or a mentally disabled one... Do you think that the chalk outlines are drawn before the body's placed in there, you frickin' moron?!' 

Ocasio-Cortez drew backlash for her comments on the radio show The Breakfast Club on Tuesday when discussing crime in the city, which is up nearly 30 percent from last

Felonly assaults are also up nearly 14 percent, with police recording 22,319 cases so far this year, and rapes have increased by nearly 11 percent. 

Murders and the number of shooting victims were down 14.4 and 13.6 percent respectively.   

The city's transit system appears to be bearing the brunt in surging crime, with about 1,865 reports so far in 2022, a 41.7 percent spike from last year.  

Overall crime in the Big Apple is up 29.1 percent from last year 

'A lot of people think that crime is up, when we actually see that shootings are down, when we see that huge indicators on the most violent crime in New York City is down,' Ocasio-Cortez said. 

The liberal then criticized Adams and Hochul for putting more police officers on subway platforms, claiming they were responsible for crime on the MTA rising.

She said: 'Subway crime is up, but let's also note that subway crime is up after they committed so many more officers to the subway system.

'So that also tells us from a policy perspective, adding more cops to the subway isn't solving this problem.'

Pirro said Ocasio-Cortez's reasoning was 'screwed up,' and lamented that the congresswoman was able to easily win her re-election bid on Tuesday as the Fox host labeled the members of The Squad 'pro-criminal.'  

'They don't know what they're talking about and Americans are suffering for that,' Pirro said.