Ocasio-Cortez rips her ex-chief of staff for ‘divisive’ tweet about fellow Dems, but insists he left her office on good terms

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scolded her ex-chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti on Wednesday for comparing some of her centrist colleagues to racist Dixiecrats, calling his comments “divisive” and revealing she gave him a good talking to after the fact.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily News at her district office in Jackson Heights, Ocasio-Cortez said Chakrabarti’s recent resignation had nothing to do with his June 27 tweet comparing members of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition to “Southern Democrats" in the early 20th century who opposed desegregation efforts.

However, for the first time, Ocasio-Cortez distanced herself from Chakrabarti’s controversial post.

“I think it was divisive,” she said, adding, “I believe in criticizing stances, but I don’t believe in specifically targeting members."

Chakrabarti’s tweet took aim at the Blue Dogs for voting in favor of a $4.6 billion emergency border funding bill that didn’t include stricter conditions on the way the Trump administration is detaining migrant children.

“They certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s,” Chakrabarti fumed in the since-deleted post.

Ocasio-Cortez said there was an “internal conversation" in her office after the tweet.

“We’ve corrected it,” she said. “He immediately took the tweet down.”

Chakrabarti abruptly resigned from his senior position in Ocasio-Cortez’s office last week to join New Consensus, a progressive climate change group that promotes the congresswoman’s signature “Green New Deal.”

Ocasio-Cortez said that move was long in the making.

“We had been discussing this transition before that whole incident happened,” she said, referring to the June 27 tweet.

The “Southern Democrats” post isn’t the only controversy swirling about Chakrabarti.

The Federal Election Commission has opened an investigation into possible campaign finance violations involving Chakrabarti and two left-wing political action committees he helped found, according to FEC filings reviewed by The News.

The probe was launched in response to a complaint filed by the right-wing National Legal and Policy Center that alleges the committees unlawfully funneled $1 million into two private companies controlled by Chakrabarti.

Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the complaint as a political hit job.

“All of these things were filed by these fringe, Republican groups. It’s a tactic they use and it’s very common,” she said. “It’s a form of legal trolling.”

The congresswoman wouldn’t get into specifics, but said Chakrabarti and the entities are “in conversation” with the FEC and “in total compliance.”