Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can dish it out, but she can’t take it.
The democratic socialist from New York encountered protesters during a visit to a Brooklyn movie theater. The group challenged the lawmaker to classify the Israeli military actions in Gaza as “genocide,” a position she indicates she has previously taken, evidenced by a recorded video of the event.
While attending a movie with her fiancé Riley Roberts, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez engaged with the protesters who confronted her inside Alamo Drafthouse Cinema around 5 p.m. on Monday. The demonstrators expressed their belief that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had not publicly used the term “genocide” to describe the bombings in the Palestinian region.
“I need you to understand that this is not OK,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a longtime proponent of protest activism, told one protester who was filming her with his phone.
“It’s not OK that there’s a genocide happening, and you’re not actively against it,” the protester fired back.
“You’re lying,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez countered, turning and going down an escalator with Mr. Roberts.
The confrontation continued as the protesters followed Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, prompting a fiery reaction from her as she exited the venue. Positioned between escalator sections, she addressed the individuals directly, reiterating her stance and accusing the protesters of trying to sandbag her.
“You’re gonna’ cut it … and you’re gonna clip this so that it’s completely out of context,” she said.
While she has never publicly called Israel’s bombing in Gaza a genocide, on Monday she claimed she had. “I already said that it was and y’all are just going pretend that it wasn’t over and over again. It’s f— up, man,” she yelled. “And you’re not helping these people, and you’re not helping them, you’re not helping them.”
After protesters confronted Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, an old post on Twitter resurfaced in which she said protesting is intended to make people “uncomfortable.”
“The whole point of protesting is to make [people] uncomfortable,” she tweeted in December 2020. “Activists take that discomfort w/ the status quo & advocate for concrete policy changes. Popular support often starts small & grows. To folks who complain, protest demands make others uncomfortable … that’s the point.”
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