Her detractors cast her off as some clueless socialist loon hell bent on turning America into Venezuela. Her fans tout her as a breath of fresh air poised to shake up the tired D.C. establishment.
What both sides can agree on, however, is that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knows how to work the room when it comes to social media.
Back in December, she had 1.5 million Twitter followers, which was reportedly more than all the other 63 incoming Democratic freshman House members combined. Her number has since swelled to more than 3 million, compared with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her 2.2 million.
Ocasio-Cortez’s latest viral sensation blew up when, in recent days, she took on campaign finance laws with a bit of role-playing at a hearing last week.
“I’m going to be the bad guy, which, I’m sure, half the room would agree with anyway,” she told lawmakers. “And I want to get away with as much bad things as possible, ideally to enrich myself and advance my interests, even if that means putting my interests ahead of the American people.”
Her conclusion: “It’s already super legal, as we’ve seen, for me to be a pretty bad guy. So it’s even easier for the president of the United States to be one, I would assume,” she said. Here’s the video, courtesy of NowThis News:
‘We have a system that is fundamentally broken.’ — Rep. @AOC is explaining just how f*cked campaign finance laws really are pic.twitter.com/sCwpkRzcHB
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 8, 2019
The video has already garnered almost 36 million views.
To put that in perspective, fellow social-media favorite Beto O’Rourke made a viral splash of his own with his take on kneeling during the national anthem. This video, which was posted way back in August, has been viewed 20 million times.
‘I can think of nothing more American.’ — Beto O'Rourke — the man taking on Ted Cruz — brilliantly explains why NFL players kneeling during the anthem is not disrespectful pic.twitter.com/bEqOAYpxEL
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 21, 2018
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez lit up social media yet again last week when she, along with Sen. Ed Markey, unveiled the “Green New Deal,” a plan intended to transform the American economy to battle climate change and create thousands of jobs in renewable energy along the way.
The resolution, which has had more than its share of skeptics, calls for the U.S. to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within 10 years.
