For the second time in the last four months, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), or AOC, has been heckled at a public event over her support of the defense of Ukraine.
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According to the New York Post, AOC was speaking at a town hall event in Co-op City in the Bronx when ten people interrupted her and began singing hymns.
The group also held signs that said “Negotiation not annihilation” and “Stop sending weapons to Ukraine.”
Security kicked the hecklers out of the event, although AOC stated that “we always support everyone’s First Amendment rights here, and everyone has the complete right to political expression.”
It is not a rare occasion for hecklers to interrupt a town hall hosted by a member of Congress.
AOC Drama on Ukraine?
The Congresswoman had also been interrupted at an appearance back in October, also about Ukraine, although some reports said hecklers had shouted anti-LGBTQ slogans at the congresswoman.
It’s unclear if any of the same people were involved in the two incidents.
Another video from the recent event had protesters singing, and holding up signs that said “No War with Russia or China” and “Negotiate don’t annihilate.”
After the protesters who were singing and holding signs are seen exiting the room, a different protester is heard yelling at various attendees before he, too is escorted out.
One woman at the event, speaking in Spanish, asked why there hasn’t been an amnesty for immigrants in 40 years, when “the Democratic Party sends $100 million to Nazis in Ukraine.”
She then said she would be outside registering voters for a new third party.
One tweet identified the singing protesters as led by a U.S. Senate candidate representing the New York chapter of the organization associated with the late political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
The Post story did not mention the LaRouche connection.
AOC for Senate?
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who won re-election in November by a wide margin, has filed to run again in 2024, Fox News reported this week. She’s currently in her third term in the House of Representatives. In December, she was the only Democratic member of the House to vote no on the year-end omnibus bill.
Meanwhile, in early December the House Ethics Committee announced that Rep. Ocasio Cortez was under an ethics investigation.
However, the exact nature of that investigation has not been revealed, even as the Republicans have since taken over the House.
“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” that statement said. “The Committee will announce its course of action in this matter following its organizational meeting and adoption of Committee Rules in the 118th Congress.”
AOC is “fully participating” in the probe, ABC News said in December.
She added in a statement of her own that she has “has always taken ethics incredibly seriously, refusing any donations from lobbyists, corporations, or other special interests. We are confident that this matter will be dismissed.”
There’s been no solid reporting about exactly what the probe is about, even though AOC has plenty of enemies in politics, in both parties.
Some speculation has centered on her attendance last year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala, also known as the Met Gala, in New York. At the event, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was photographed wearing a white dress that said “tax the rich.”
At issue is how she came to attend the event and who paid for her ticket.
“If a lobbying entity paid for the ticket, then it would be a violation of the gift rule, but I have no reason to believe it was provided by any lobbying entity,” Craig Holman, the government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, told Insider in December.
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
