On Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed that White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany diminished her accomplishments by not referring to her as a congresswoman but a “Biden adviser.”
The comment from McEnany came during a press briefing on June 8. McEnany was asked about the “growing movement to either defund or dismantle police forces across the country” and responded:
“Yeah, it’s a really good question. The President is appalled by the Defund the Police movement. The fact that you have sitting congresswomen wanting to defund the police — notably Rashida Tlaib; notably Biden adviser AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; former Clinton and Eric Holder spokesperson Brian Fallon wanting to defund our police across this country — it is extraordinary.”
Reviewing McEnany’s response shows that Ocasio-Cortez was wrong. While McEnany did indeed call her a “Biden adviser”—a title likely referencing Ocasio-Cortez’s co-chairship of a Biden campaign climate change task force—just before doing so McEnany referred to “sitting congresswomen” and included Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib in that description. Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib have been two of the highest-profile supporters of the Defund the Police movement. Ocasio-Cortez called for cuts to the New York Police Department’s budget in the wake of police brutality protests around the country, and Tlaib said of the Defund the Police movement: “There is real validity in dismantling the current racist system.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s first tweet relies on a partial quote of what McEnany said. The full quote shows that McEnany indeed referred to her as a congresswoman.
Photograph by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images.
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This is a terrible quote and very confusing (not surprising given it is spoken word). She makes Rashida Tlaib clearly a congresswoman but you get the former Holder person at the end (I googled and Brian isn’t a congresswoman) with the tag to Clinton and then AOC tagged to Biden. The purpose of the comment was to link AOC to Biden. Not surprisingly, when both the WH and AOC are speaking not to be heard but to score points, clarity is the first victim.
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I have never heard of Jake Sherman before but this was a weasely move. "Hey Alexandria, did you hear what Kayleigh said about you?!" Is Jake in high school or what? I'll forgive AOC here because he cc'ed her with misleading info to provoke a reaction and he got it. Her mistake was not checking the full context before responding. But come on Jake, this is not journalism, this is juvenile.
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