The congresswoman responded to angry voters by showing off her dance moves and sticking out her tongue
Facing down protesters at a New York City townhall meeting for the second time in the span of a week, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked her angry critics by smirking and pretending to dance to the cadence of their chant.
The latest confrontation with voters occurred on Wednesday evening in the city’s Queens borough, where Ocasio-Cortez held a townhall event to bolster support from her constituents heading into next month’s congressional midterm elections. A video clip from the meeting shows protesters holding up signs and chanting “AOC has to go” to the beat of a drum.
Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, sat on a stage behind the podium as the protesters shouted. She responded by swaying and shaking her shoulders and arms in mock dance moves while sticking out her tongue, then smiled and drank from a bottle of water.
The incident came just one week after demonstrators interrupted Ocasio-Cortez’s townhall event in New York’s Bronx borough, accusing her of helping to push the US to the brink of nuclear war with Russia by voting to support massive military aid packages for Ukraine. One man questioned how she could claim to be a “progressive socialist” while joining with other Democrats to prolong and escalate the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
At the latest townhall, protesters accused Ocasio-Cortez of being a liar and a hypocrite. One person pretended to be handcuffed, mocking the congresswoman for allegedly doing the same to dramatize her arrest at an abortion-rights protest in July. Another activist held up a sign promoting Ocasio-Cortez’s opponent in the November 8 midterms, Republican Tina Forte, and saying, “F**k AOC.” The 33-year-old Democrat responded by pointing at him and saying, “Very classy. Thank you, sir.”
Ocasio-Cortez was first elected to Congress in her predominantly Democrat district in 2018, portraying herself as a “progressive” outsider with such far-left policies as abolishing the US Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency and providing government health care to all Americans. However, critics have accused her of voting like an establishment politician, especially when it comes to war. Her votes in Congress have aligned with President Joe Biden’s views on 93.7% of bills, according to research firm FiveThirtyEight.
Wednesday’s town-hall event was disrupted again when the lights went out in the auditorium, at which point Ocasio-Cortez’s security team led her away from the stage. When the lights came back on about one minute later, she returned and told the audience, “I’m just not allowed to be in a room when the lights turn off.”
