Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) admitted on Sunday that some of the radical positions people took during the COVID-19 pandemic were a product of the extreme times, and defended people’s right to change their stances.During a stop by ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, anchor Jonathan Karl asked her about Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong (D), who recently distanced herself from her 2020-2021 social media posts where she called to abolish the police amid the surge in social consciousness that spread in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and cancel Thanksgiving. Ocasio-Cortez noted that opinions can evolve and quoted New York City councilmember Chi Ossé when she quipped that: “Woke 1.0 was crazy.”“I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful,” she said. “I think that when we talk about crime today, it’s fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime, in bringing crime down, right? And I think we all share in the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible. I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”AOC defends Woke 1.0: "Especially during covid, there was a huge opening of the Overton window ... the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. I actually think the discussions that we had in that time were… pic.twitter.com/KUY38DhS0J— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 9, 2026While Ocasio-Cortez defended Hong, she also said she was not planning to endorse anyone in that race, but was instead focused on “winning back the Congress.”