Republicans following after Donald Trump have a real thing for calling reputable, mainstream media “fake news.” In reality, however, those same interests regularly peddle “fake news” of their own, including a completely faked interview with New York candidate for Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she has now responded to fittingly.
In case you’re unfamiliar, Ocasio-Cortez is the individual who successfully challenged New York’s U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley in the Democratic primary and is now proceeding to the general election later this year. Republicans have gone after her intensely for her self-identification as a democratic socialist.
The conservative online media presence CRTV posted a video this week that it cast as an interview with the candidate. In reality, “interviewer” Allie Beth Stuckey did not speak to Ocasio-Cortez. Instead, questions were simply edited into clips of footage from an appearance she made on PBS recently with the intent of making her look extremely off. The faked “answers” were either irrelevant, incompetent, or both.
Responding, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter:
‘Republicans are so scared of me that they’re faking videos and presenting them as real on Facebook because they can’t deal with reality anymore. Here’s one bonafide truth: Election Day is November 6th.’
Republicans are so scared of me that they’re faking videos and presenting them as real on Facebook because they can’t deal with reality anymore.
Here’s one bonafide truth:
Election Day is November 6th. https://t.co/Z7MfisgiWl— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) July 24, 2018
The video was, again, not presented as faked. CRTV posted it on Twitter with a mundane caption meant to prop it up as a legitimate interview, poising it to fuel internet dumpster fires of conservative criticism.
Stuckey glossed over this, acting in her response to criticism as though the video was made out to obviously be satire.
She wrote:
‘To the few saying: “THIS IS FAKE!” — Thank you! I don’t know where any of us would be without your keen insight. As much as we hoped no one would notice that this is *literally taken from a PBS interview she did last week and was edited together as a joke*, the jig is up I guess.’
To the few saying: “THIS IS FAKE!”
Thank you! I don’t know where any of us would be without your keen insight. As much as we hoped no one would notice that this is *literally taken from a PBS interview she did last week and was edited together as a joke*, the jig is up I guess. https://t.co/rnm3TPNy3i
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) July 24, 2018
She completely ignores the irony of a conservative outlet posting something that is, quite simply, fake news while the effective head of the Republican Party, President Donald Trump, makes criticism of supposedly “fake news” into a core part of his platform.
No amount of posturing via “fake news” will alter reality. Although she does have a Republican challenger in Anthony Pappas, Ocasio-Cortez is aiming to fill a Congressional seat that has been held by a Democrat for years in a national political environment turning further that direction.
In other words, like it or not conservatives, come early next year, a democratic socialist will likely have a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats maintain, at present, a just over 7 percent lead over Republicans in generic Congressional ballot polling, meaning that even if not every new left-wing member of Congress is willing to cast themselves as far left as Ocasio-Cortez does, there will likely be a significant number of sympathizers come 2019.
Her proposals include familiar left-wing talking points that maintain broad public support in the United States like broad national health care coverage and tuition-free public higher education. She personally has a high profile these days, and next to her, there remain dozens and dozens of Democratic candidates who have flipped formerly GOP-held seats to their side during the Trump era as the nation continues to gear up for the midterm elections.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
