OAN Staff Blake Wolf
8:23 AM – Thursday, October 16, 2025
Prominent Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez struggled to give President Donald Trump credit for securing a ceasefire in Gaza while labeling him an “obstacle to peace.”
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins whether President Trump deserves credit for securing a ceasefire and hostage exchange during a Wednesday town hall.
When directly asked whether Trump deserves credit for returning the hostages, she responded: “In this particular development, yes. But we also know that President Trump was an obstacle to peace previously as well.”
“We may have an announcement around a ceasefire, but Gaza has been flattened,” Ocasio-Cortez stated. “Tens of thousands of people are dead, universities gone, hospitals eliminated with American-made bombs.”
“The United States played a role in all of this destruction to begin with by enabling [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu,” she continued. “We look the other way because we deem them an ally.”
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Ocasio-Cortez went on to express skepticism over whether the ceasefire will hold, adding, “I pray that it does. But I do believe we need to see if it holds. I don’t believe that there’s been a history of fidelity to these agreements, and so I think we have to ensure that we will see the terms held to.”
Meanwhile, Sanders reacted to the news of President Trump securing a ceasefire, saying he was “annoyed” by all the talk about who deserved credit.
“The entire infrastructure of Gaza, hospitals, schools, water systems, wastewater plants have been destroyed under Trump. And by the way, what bothers me as an American, we have given under Biden and under Trump, $22 billion to Netanyahu’s extremist government, which for the last month or two have been starving children. That has been their policy,” Sanders stated.
“Gaza has a population of 2.2 million people. In the last two years, 160,000 people have been wounded, 65,000 killed — mostly women, children, and the elderly,” he continued. “That’s 10% of the population.”
“This is not a time for credit. This is a time to think about American policy. Are we happy that we have given tens of billions of dollars to destroy the Palestinian people? Israel had a right to defend itself. They were attacked by a terrorist group. They did not have a right to go into an all-out war against women and children in Gaza,” Sanders added.
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders’s comments come as President Trump attempts to hold both sides to the terms of the ceasefire, which now moves into phase two following the release of the living hostages.
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