Ahead of the publication of “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution,” right-wing media outlets, in a series of reports in Fox News, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, and so on, wildly distorted the book.

Indeed, the Politico story — as if to make Weber’s point — quoted the policy director for the climate group 350.org (where some of the Sunrise brass had started their careers or journeys into activism) criticizing the resolution for using the term “clean,” which indicated a “keep the door open” approach to carbon capture and sequestration, allowing fossil fuels to continue to be used.

The Politico article also quoted Sean McGarvey, president of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, saying that oil and gas industry jobs paid solid, middle-class wages while work in the renewable field still did not.

McGarvey made the comments at an event alongside Mike Sommers, a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, who gleefully drove in the wedge, claiming that one-third of construction jobs are in the oil and gas industry.

“I think we had done such a good job, up until that point, of massaging the language that there was kind of an arrogance of, like, ‘We can actually appease everyone here,’ instead of sticking to our guns and making a real choice about charting a different direction and keeping our eyes on the prize,” Weber said.

Joe Biden, who would go on to become the Democratic nominee and then president, rejected the moniker as part of his effort to differentiate himself from the progressive wing, but the context of his platform was wildly more ambitious than anything Hillary Clinton had put out in 2016 and became even more so after he named AOC and Sunrise head Varshini Prakash to a committee charged with crafting his climate agenda.

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