Democrats Suddenly Can’t Define ‘Woke’ After AOC Says It Was ‘Crazy’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) handed her party a problem it spent Sunday morning refusing to answer when she laughed off a slate of far-left policy positions as the excesses of “Woke 1.”

Two of the biggest Sunday shows put Ocasio-Cortez’s remark to Democratic guests as a loyalty test, and both guests gave a near-identical non-answer. NBC’s Kristen Welker and CNN’s Jake Tapper each raised it on “Meet the Press” and “State of the Union,” respectively.

Welker put the question to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) directly, quoting Ocasio-Cortez and asking whether he agreed.

“She said ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’ effectively suggesting some progressive views just went too far in the 2020s,” Welker said. “Do you agree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that Woke 1 was crazy?”

“Well, I don’t know what these labels mean,” Khanna replied, immediately pivoting to a recitation of his own record: “I’ll tell you what I’ve always stood for. I have never been for defunding police.” He went on to volunteer that he has “called for abolishing ICE.”

Welker followed up by asking about Francesca Hong — the Madison democratic socialist who narrowly lost Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday — and the resurfaced post in which she called for getting rid of Thanksgiving. “Did that kind of rhetoric hurt the progressive cause?” she asked.

Khanna refused to give an inch. “I really feel bad for what happened to Francesca. And I know it’s fashionable to distance yourself. I am not,” he said. “I was proud to endorse her and she’s far more than the caricature that was presented.”

Notably, Ocasio-Cortez herself never endorsed Hong. Asked in the same ABC News interview that produced the “Woke 1” line whether she would, she said her focus was “winning back the Congress” — putting her in line with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the national Democratic Socialists of America, all of whom stayed out. Khanna did not.

On “State of the Union,” Tapper raised an almost identical line of questioning with Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), referencing Ocasio-Cortez’s comments and pressing Moore for his view.

Democrat Governor of Maryland Wes Moore plays dumb when asked if Democrats went too far by calling to defund the police:

“I said I don’t know what woke 1 is, but frankly I don’t know what woke 2 or woke 3 is either.” pic.twitter.com/PFVN265qYw

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 16, 2026

“Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems to have acknowledged the overreach of the 2020 era of progressivism last week. She said, quote, ‘Woke 1 was crazy,'” Tapper said. “You were asked about that. You said you didn’t know what Woke 1 was. So I’ve been trying to figure out how to ask this question. There’s no official definition. I think Woke 1 generally refers to what are now viewed as excesses of the progressive movement — defund the police, a far-left view of the world that views the world in terms of only oppressor and oppressee, language policing, holiday policing, cancel culture positions that turned off a lot of middle-of-the-road voters. What is your take on that era, even if that wasn’t part of how you ran or thought or governed — and what does the Democratic Party need to do if they hope to win outside of blue states and congressional districts?”

Moore took a position almost identical to Khanna’s, replying, “Well, it’s funny, it’s true — I said I don’t know what Woke 1 is, but frankly, I don’t know what Woke 2 or Woke 3 is either.” Moore then pivoted to gas prices, recounting a conversation with a woman at a Delmarva Shorebirds game who told him she can’t afford to drive to her doctor’s appointments. Tapper did not follow up.

Ocasio-Cortez further popularized the phrase during an August 9 appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” where she too was attempting to put some distance between herself and the less popular policies of the far left. Anchor Jonathan Karl had asked her about Hong’s record. The line wasn’t hers: she borrowed it from New York City Councilman Chi Ossé, a fellow socialist who deployed it in May while explaining away his own 2021 declaration that “a cis white man should not be the next speaker of the Council.”

“I have a local city councilman that has this saying, ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’” Ocasio-Cortez told Karl during an interview. “What’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.”

She went on to blame the pandemic for the era’s excesses while insisting the debates it produced were worthwhile.

“I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful,” she said.