On Saturday's CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera, CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson claimed that the reason freshman New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is so often attacked by conservatives is because she is "incredibly charismatic," "a young Latina," and "incredibly eloquent."
The CNN reporter named everything except the actual reason -- her self-identified "socialist" views were so popular with her party's base that she defeated an entrenched Democratic incumbent.
At 8:30 p.m. Eastern, Cabrera played a clip of Donald Trump Jr. at a rally in which audience members chanted, "AOC sucks!" Cabrera then followed up by quoting from Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez suggesting misogyny was to blame for the negative views toward her: "Today Ocasio-Cortez responded by saying this is a pattern among those on the right, including the President, and she added that the President doesn't have another woman, Hillary Clinton or whoever else, to vilify anymore."
The CNN host then added: "Nia-Malika, why is she such a magnet for conservatives?"
Henderson began her response:
Well, she's incredibly charismatic. She is in some ways a symbol of where the country is going in terms of demographics. He or she is a young Latina woman who upset a Democrat in New York, and she's incredibly eloquent in terms of talking about Democratic party values.
She added:
And I think she's probably right, this idea that she's the new boogeywoman -- the old boogeywoman was obviously Hillary Rodham Clinton. We remember those chants of, 'Lock her up, lock her up.' They've moved on from that and found a new boogeywoman in AOC.
As she noted that some Democrats are "nervous" about her views, Henderson never mentioned the word "socialist" or that her self-described "democratic socialist" ideology counts against her with conservatives.
