MSNBC host Joy Reid criticized the Democratic Party on Tuesday for refusing to allow the younger and rising stars like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a chance to take leadership roles away from the oldest and longest-serving members.
"[The] gerontocracy seems like it’s intractable," Reid said. "I recall when Barack Obama was elected, he kind of pushed aside the DNC and created his own organization because I think there is a frustration with the sort of creaky way the DNC operates."
The debate over age and mental fitness has become increasingly divisive in the Democratic Party, with multiple Democratic governors refusing to say if there should be a broad age limit put on the Democratic nominee for president in 2028.
It's a sensitive topic for the party after President Biden was forced to step aside from the Democratic nomination in July due to age concerns within the party. His late exit is blamed in part for the eventual defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris, who took his spot atop the ticket.
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Reid said that the Democratic Party is dominated by "donors and consultants and people who are locked in the old ways of doing things. They want to advertise on TV. Look, I am for TV, I love TV, I work on TV, but they don’t want to do the sort of new world media. But then AOC is so good at it."
Ocasio-Cortez, an influential member of the "Squad" on Capitol Hill, often engages with voters on social media platforms like Instagram. The 35-year-old was passed over for a leadership role on the powerful House Oversight Committee in favor of 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., in part due to the influence of 84-year-old ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
"Kamala Harris represented the generational change that base Democratic voters demanded, and yet when you go to the House and Senate, no generational change," Reid said. "Does that make sense to you?"
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"It’s not a time of life, it’s a state of mind," California Gov. Gavin Newsom told the New York Times, suggesting putting a specific limit on it would be "absurd." Newsom had said in 2023 that Biden's age wasn't a problem.
With some exceptions, Democrats generally defended Biden against attacks on his age or ability to do the job ahead of his rough debate performance against Donald Trump in June. Fears he would lose to Trump led to Pelosi and other Democrats pressuring him to drop out, but Harris would go on to lose anyway.
Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
