Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-CortezLawmakers fear voter backlash over failure to reach COVID-19 relief deal Why Democrats must confront extreme left wing incitement to violence The Hill Interview: Jerry Brown on climate disasters, COVID-19 and Biden's 'Rooseveltian moment' MORE (D-N.Y.), one of Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE's (I-Vt.) most high-profile endorsers, defended Sanders’s presidential primary opponent Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenBiden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? Warren, Schumer introduce plan for next president to cancel ,000 in student debt The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Don't expect a government check anytime soon MORE (D-Mass.) against “misogynistic” criticisms of the senator’s debate performance.

“Warren was not mean, nor angry. She was effective,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday, in response to conservative columnist for The Washington Post Jennifer Rubin’s tweet that read, “Mean and angry Warren is not a good look.”

Women are “allowed to be angry” about racial profiling, sexual harassment and banks “committing fraud against single parents,” the congresswoman added.

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“Anger at injustice is quite appropriate,” she said. “It’s truly time to retire the misogynist trope that angry men are powerful, yet angry women are unhinged. It’s such gaslighting nonsense. You SHOULD be mad at abuse of power. The real question is how one channels that energy into positive change that creates justice,” she wrote.

It’s truly time to retire the misogynist trope that angry men are powerful, yet angry women are unhinged.



It’s such gaslighting nonsense. You SHOULD be mad at abuse of power. The real question is how one channels that energy into positive change that creates justice. — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 20, 2020

Ocasio-Cortez’s defense comes as Warren took on her primary opponents more directly than in past debates or throughout the campaign.

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Warren leveled attacks at nearly all her opponents on stage based on their policy proposals, largely targeting billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who made his debate debut Wednesday in Nevada.

Rubin, the Post columnist, tweeted in response to Ocasio-Cortez, “Absolutely, but not vs everyone all the time.”

“Necessary or fair to insult Klobuchar by saying her healthcare proposal fits on a post it? Necessary to say Biden who was smeared in the kangaroo Senate trial wants to be McConnell's friend? C'mon. Get angry and hit where deserved,” Rubin said.

Warren’s debate performance, however, seems to have fired up her supporters. Her campaign said Wednesday evening that the first hour of the debate was Warren’s best hour of fundraising yet.

The debate was the final one before Saturday’s Nevada caucuses.

Warren is trailing in third, based on the number of delegates each candidate has, behind Sanders and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg Pete ButtigiegBipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Bogeymen of the far left deserve a place in any Biden administration Overnight Defense: Woodward book causes new firestorm | Book says Trump lashed out at generals, told Woodward about secret weapons system | US withdrawing thousands of troops from Iraq MORE. She's heading into Nevada after coming in third and fourth in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively.