Fresh off her victory in New York’s 13th Congressional District Democratic primary, Darializa Avila Chevalier told MS NOW’s Ali Velshi that she “regrets” past controversial social media posts, including comments about former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, admitting that the controversy caused “a lot of division” during her campaign to unseat incumbent New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

Between 2018 and 2022, the democratic socialist made a series of now-deleted posts on X, including posts promoting conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19, using expletives to refer to Harris and calling Biden a “rapist.”

During an interview on “The 11th Hour” on Wednesday, Chevalier said there were “a lot of misunderstandings” about the posts and why they were later deleted.

“I deleted my account many years back because I was focused on returning to organizing and my studies,” she told Velshi.

“All that to say, I do regret my tweets, and that’s something that I think has brought a lot of division,” Chevalier continued. “And that’s something I regret, because as an organizer, my goal is always to unify our community and deliver for our community.”

Chevalier, who apologized directly to Harris during a debate earlier this month, said her posts about the former vice president came from a feeling of political “disempowerment” that she believes many Americans share.

“I think so many folks in our country feel that they don’t have representation that is fighting for them,” she said. “That was part of why I decided to run, because I felt that abandonment from establishment politics that looks at my community as though it is merely statistics and not people who are worth fighting for.”

While she apologized for her posts, Chevalier also questioned what she described as a double standard of accountability for those with political power and those without it.

“We’re asked to really have accountability for folks who have not held political office or have political power, and don’t do the same for folks who are in positions of political power,” she said. 

She said lawmakers should have to answer for the decisions they make “every single day [that] have an enormous impact on millions of people in our country.”

The lack of accountability for elected officials, according to Chevalier, is what contributes to a feeling of disempowerment among voters.

“I think for folks who feel disempowered, it’s important to make sure that we’re getting to the heart of where that sense of disempowerment is coming from,” she said. 

The democratic socialist said what Americans “need is representation that is actually going to listen to the community, hear the frustrations, and open that door and keep it propped open, so that everyone can be part of their democracy.”

You can watch Chevalier’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.

The post Chevalier says she ‘regrets’ controversial social media posts that caused ‘division’ appeared first on MS NOW.

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