Jessica Ramos doubles down on ‘absent’ AOC accusations

State Sen. Jessica Ramos doubled down on her withering criticism of “absent” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, claiming the far-left’s darling is held to a “different standard” than other elected officials.

Ramos, a liberal Democrat, stood by her barbs on social media after getting blowback from other state lawmakers aligned with Democratic Socialists of America who came to fellow DSA member Ocasio-Cortez’s defense.

“Respectfully, she ran on breathing our air. I do see the other neighboring congressional representatives quite often. I’ve met w [Congresswoman Grace] Meng and others. Seems there’s different standards for folks,” Ramos, who represents parts of Queens that overlap with AOC’s congressional district, said in a tweet late Sunday night in response to Brooklyn state Sen. Julia Salazar.

Ramos’ “air” crack appeared to be a reminder that Ocasio-Cortez, at the time an unknown, said in a video for her campaign that ousted entrenched congressman Joe Crowley from office in 2018, “That a Democrat who takes corporate money, profits off foreclosure, doesn’t live here, doesn’t send his kids to our schools, doesn’t drink our water or breathe our air cannot possibly represent us.”

But now, Ramos says, it is AOC who, like Crowley then, has been missing in action. They share office space in the same building but she says she almost never sees the congresswoman or is able to communicate with her.

“We’ve been through some bad crises and never a phone call. I’ve tried many times,” Ramos said.

Salazar, like Ocasio-Cortez a DSA member who serves with Ramos in the state Senate, told her colleague to lay off the congresswoman.

“Respectfully…I don’t think NY state senators, who are only expected to be in Albany for like 70 days/year (or less), can expect a member of congress (who also rep districts like 3X larger than our districts) to be in one neighborhood in their district as often as we are,” Salazar said in a tweet.

Another Brooklyn state senator and DSA member, Jabari Brisport, tweeted a photo of Ramos with AOC in March with the Ramos quote: “I have not spoken to my congressperson in months. Maybe more than a year?”

Ramos declined further comment on Monday.

Ocasio-Cortez’s office declined comment.

The spat was triggered by a medical student and health care activist who claimed AOC’s staff blew off a meeting with two health policy experts.

“A couple of the most highly respected health policy academics recently set up a meeting with AOC’s office to discuss NHS-style healthcare reform,” said the medical student, who uses the Twitter handle @jai_lies.

“They were told bluntly by AOC’s staff, ‘we’re not doing healthcare right now.’ ”

The health activist added: “So while she’s doing performative resistance art for the cameras she’s ‘not doing healthcare right now. We are in the middle of two pandemics & people are still dying because they lack healthcare. this is not fighting.”

Ocasio-Cortez responded in a tweet, “I’m really sorry to hear that this happened. It’s not representative of me nor my values. If you can connect with details I’d appreciate it. I’ll follow so DMs will be open.”

A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday they had no record of the supposed meeting.

But Ramos unloaded a series of attack tweets on the congresswoman.

“Maybe if you spent more time in your office and with your team you’d know what goes on. Just saying it would be nice if you breathed our air,” Ramos, who chairs the Senate Labor Committee and is backed by the left-leaning Working Families Party, said snarkily in a tweet. “So, as an employer, what happens with the staffer who said this?”

Ramos is a progressive backed by many of the left-leaning groups as AOC, such as the Working Families Party. But Ramos, chairwoman of the Senate Labor Committee with ties to the union movement, is not affiliated with DSA.