Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Monday after a photo surfaced picturing a group of young men — appearing to work for Mr. McConnell’s reelection campaign — choking and groping a cardboard cutout of her.
The New York Democrat tweeted: “Hey @senatemajldr - these young men look like they work for you. Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping & choking members of Congress w/ your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch? Thanks.”
The photo shows seven men in “Team Mitch” T-shirts posing with the cutout, but one of the men is groping her while the other pretends to choke her.
Campaign spokesman Kevin Golden told The Washington Post they don’t condone “any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life-sized cardboard cutouts of any gender in a manner similar to President Obama’s speechwriting staff several years ago,” referring to a picture of speechwriters who performed a similar pose on a Hillary Clinton cardboard cutout in 2009.
“We’ve watched for years as the far-left media look for every possible way to demonize, stereotype, and publicly castigate every young person who dares to get involved with Republican politics. These young men are not campaign staff; they’re high schoolers.”
“It’s incredible that the national media has sought to once again paint a target on their backs rather than report real, and significant news in our country,” the spokesman said.
According to HuffPost, most of the men’s accounts have been shut down for inappropriate posting. Some of the men appeared in another photo on the official “Team Mitch” Instagram account holding large cutout heads of Trump-nominated Supreme Court Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh, while at the “Fancy Farm” picnic.
The photo comes after criticism surrounding a campaign tweet of cardboard graves, including a headstone for Mr. McConnell’s potential 2020 Democratic opponent Amy McGrath, captioned “The Grim Reaper of Socialism.”
Ms. McGrath called out the post as insensitive as it was posted shortly after a mass shooter in El Paso, Texas, killed 22 people.
“Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo,” she tweeted. “I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it’s appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging.”
Mr. McConnell’s campaign clarified the graves were referencing a Louisville Courrier-Journal cartoon.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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