After Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in response to the certification of the Electoral College vote, people on Twitter began taking a second look at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s December tweet explaining why people protest.
“What if activists aren’t PR firms for politicians & their demands are bc police budgets are exploding, community resources are shrinking to bankroll it, & ppl brought this up for ages but it wasn’t until they said 'defund' that comfortable people started paying attn to brutality," she said on Dec. 2. “The thing that critics of activists don’t get is that they tried playing the 'polite language' policy game and all it did was make them easier to ignore. It wasn’t until they made folks uncomfortable that there was traction to do ANYTHING even if it wasn’t their full demands.”
She continued: “The whole point of protesting is to make ppl uncomfortable. 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.”
Many pointed out that the tweet did not age well.
This isn’t aging well. https://t.co/dAuxNrwHVL
— Stacy Washington (@StacyOnTheRight) January 7, 2021
The progressive Democrat's communications director accused the right of "twisting" her words to imply she "supports violence."
.@AOC’s Comms Director here. Right-wing accounts are taking the last tweet from this old thread on the ‘defund’ mvmnt & twisting it to imply AOC supports violence like what’s happening at the Capitol. We asked @Twitter to stop the misinfo, but as we wait, you can help with a RT. https://t.co/BCiUco2H3l
— Lauren Hitt (@LaurenHitt) January 6, 2021
In response, The Federalist's Sean Davis commented, "You almost have to marvel at how unashamedly Orwellian and totalitarian these people are."
AOC's communications director is currently trying to get Twitter to ban users from noting AOC's support of violent BLM and Antifa riots. You almost have to marvel at how unashamedly Orwellian and totalitarian these people are. https://t.co/vK1uwBpumt https://t.co/3tZ6P2lejc
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) January 6, 2021
On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez began calling for impeaching President Trump and appeared supportive of efforts to expel members of Congress “who have incited this domestic terror attack through their attempts to overturn the election.”
Impeach.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 7, 2021