Media Darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Banned Press From Local Town Hall
Wait until you get to Capitol Hill…
Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a candidate for the House from New York, loves the media and the media loves her right back. After her primary win over Democrat incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, she’s traveled all around the country and never had a problem with the cameras.
That is until Ocasio-Cortez returned to the district she may represent in the House. Her campaign banned the press from stops on a tour throughout the district.
Ocasio-Cortez has embarked on a “listening tour” for her future constituents to engage in “lively, compassionate discourse with a diversity of viewpoints.”
But unless you attended the town hall, no one knows what happened because Ocasio-Cortez banned the press.
From The Queens Chronicle:
But when Ocasio-Cortez returned to the district for a Bronx community meeting with prominent healthcare activist Ady Barkan last Tuesday, her campaign manager, Vigie Ramos Rios, later told the Chronicle, she was “mobbed” by reporters, “even though we said no Q&A and no one-on-one [interviews].”
According to Ramos Rios and campaign spokesman Corbin Trent, that unwanted attention led to a press ban both for last Wednesday’s listening tour stop in the Bronx and Sunday’s in Corona.
“We wanted to help create a space where community members felt comfortable and open to express themselves without the distraction of cameras and press. These were the first set of events where the press has been excluded,” Trent said. “This is an outlier and will not be the norm. We’re still adjusting our logistics to fit Alexandria’s national profile.”
Um, no matter where you go, the press will still shout questions and try to get a word in even if you say there’s no Q&A session or interviews. That’s how it works:
.@Ocasio2018 is in for a rough time on Capitol Hill — where reporters roam freely at all hours of the day and night — if this is her attitude toward the press https://t.co/3RyBHVQEdq
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) August 17, 2018
Campaign says ““We wanted to help create a space where community members felt comfortable and open to express themselves without the distraction of cameras and press.”
Then make it a private event. Don’t make it a public event and then ban the press.
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) August 17, 2018
I want to know why this is unwanted compared to the other times she had the media shoved in her face. To me it sounds like an excuse to ban the press from the meeting.
Why shun the local media of the district you will represent, but embrace the national media? Your local media is the most important, Ocasio-Cortez.
No, her campaign doesn’t think she’s being hypocritical:
Asked if it was hypocritical for Ocasio-Cortez to ban the press from an in-district community meeting after weeks of interviews with prominent publications and rallying with candidates in other states, Trent said the campaign is committed to maintaining a positive relationship with area media outlets.
“After our primary victory, the campaign had what we saw as a unique and limited opportunity for Alexandria to use her elevated platform to speak about issues affecting our district to the national media, and to campaign for other progressive candidates around the country,” he said. “By working to get other progressive candidates elected, Alexandria will be securing more national voting power for the people of Queens and the Bronx.”
Will she face the same criticism lobbed at President Donald Trump for his words about the press? Probably not.
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Comments
It’s all going to her head already, and she hasn’t been elected yet.
Well, in all fairness, there’s apparently plenty of empty storage space there.
Yes, but when you’re an airhead, there’s plenty of space for that.
The real reason is probably that she is afraid of questions she has no clue how to answer or what they’re even talking about. She wants only dumb constituents for an audience.
“Her campaign banned the press from stops on a tour throughout the district.”
An obvious, overt attack on freedom of the press by the Cortez campaign. The din of outrage against her will be deafening.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m sorry. For a second there I thought I was speaking about serious people.
It is a curious contrast that brings into question the timing; Either Campaign Cortez is so tone deaf and amateur they don’t realize how laughable they appear, or this is a clever show of force amid yesterday’s orchestated ‘journo-list’ counter-attack against Trump.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Agreed.
By now her campaign has major input from the nationals. This limitation on press is to prevent any mistakes in the meeting to be reported on. She has miscued just enough to need blinders on the press. Being a Leftist, she must now take instructions from the leadership since gaining notoriety.
This feels like a pattern.
Remember when President Obama was going to be the most transparent President in history–and would go for months without end never talking to a member of the press or giving a press conference?
Compare and contrast to President Trump, who seems to be giving formal and informal press conferences nearly every day, and who tweets his innermost thoughts for everyone to read. And yet it’s Trump who everyone thinks is engaged in a war against a free press in this country. (Disagreement–even strong disagreement, which Trump engages in, is not censorship.)
I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to deal with America’s media. They deserve their bad reputation. On the other hand, if admission is free and open to the public, how exactly do you keep anyone out?
Especially if one of the reporters lives in the district she is running to represent.
Authoritarian Socialists have a slightly different definition of “open to the public”.
There’s nothing authoritarian about deciding whom you want to attend your event. Trump had every right to do it at his rallies, and Occasional Cortex can do it at hers.
I think the point is the hypocrisy both from her in criticizing Trump’s position towards the media and from the media, who will remain largely silent on this while screaming like spoiled children on Trump.
“There’s nothing authoritarian about – ”
It’s a public event. If it was a private event, your point would have merit.
Just because you allow the general public to attend your event doesn’t mean you can’t exclude anyone you don’t want there. It’s still private property and you’re still in control. You simply inform certain people they’re unwelcome, and they must stay away; if you see them there you can tell them to leave, and if they don’t immediately make their way out you can forcibly remove them. That’s what Trump did to lefty protesters at his campaign rallies, remember? The moment they revealed themselves they were told to leave.
I think you’ve been buffaloed by an “all or nothing” attitude.
She’s a dumb little coward who doesn’t want the green curtain pulled back.
“After our primary victory, the campaign had what we saw as a unique and limited opportunity for Alexandria to use her elevated platform to speak about issues…”
I like the “limited” part.
To be fair, I think that’s a reference to many Americans’ short attention span.
With all the exposure she is getting, I think she is more afraid of having her ignorant comments and beliefs exposed. She wants her happy space where she can talk about unicorn farts being rainbows and her ignorant followers can keep nodding along with her.
She has shown she is stupid on so many levels, so now she will pull an Obama and close the doors and gets to pretend that she is smart.
BINGO, she has repeatedly been caught with her pants down when media asked pretty simple questions. As a young man I pursued young ladies who were both attractive and smart, she would not have made the grade.
Last stories I remember Crowley is still on the ballot as a third party candidate. Is that still the case?
maybe voters there will get buyer remorse and vote him in.
Which would be funny. Suppose that does happen and Dems win the House but decide not to make Pelosi speaker. Crowley was suppose to me the second in line for Speaker. Would they pick him even though technically he is third party?
Yes, he is on the ballot under another party. I’ve never wanted a (D) to win so bad in my life. I hope people in that district go by name recognition and put him back in the seat.
But it isn’t buyer’s remorse. She won because 88% of the district decided to not go shopping that day. Those who voted for her will likely do the same in November. The big question is what will the other 88% do? The danger is her getting a lot of votes simply from those who vote straight D, which is a major advantage to having gotten the nomination. regardless of what happens, it will be a win, both in the political catfight right up to the election, and the fact that one of the two players will vanish thus leading to a weakening of the Dims in a district where it should be nothing but rainbows and unicorn farts 24/7. It might create enough turmoils where a left-leaning (R) with a C rating might be able to emerge victorious in 2020. Think of this as Hillary stealing the nom from Bernie, part 2, and the fallout from that strategic miscue.
Sorry, I know she’s dumb as sticks, but this isn’t an unreasonable tactic.
National exposure is one thing. But local votes are what she needs to get in office. So when trying to appeal to local voters, the usual national press circus is not what she needs. She needs her voters to think she’s actually listening to them, and not just going through the usual song-and-dance routine for the TV cameras, giving nonsense answers to softball questions pitched by reporters from San Francisco or Atlanta.
And that’s bad. I don’t want to see any sign of practical intelligence from this turkey (or, probably more likely, her campaign manager). That would make her more dangerous.
I am torn on this one. If she wins, then it does unfortunately put one of her type on the map. But it also takes out a major high-ranking dem player, and, it allows her to embarrass herself, and more importantly, her type at a higher level. Think Crazy Ocasio as the East Coast equivalent of Mad Maxine. I doubt Crowley would vote the way I want on anything anyway (say a D- vs an F), so having him back in place doesn’t really improve things except to have the OC fizzle and burn to never be heard from again. So as I see it, there is some possibility of “win” regardless of how it goes here as opposed to Crowley winning the spot again with no fanfare. At least one of them will be taken out for good in this. Her mistake in all of this is actually believing that the entire country supports her vision as much as her little third-world $h!thole district does. If she did win, I could see her becoming a weekly staple on SNL as the old-school Dims give their marching orders to Lorne.
Tune in next year when she lectures us about poverty from the porch of her third house.
Ah socialists. The rules never apply to them. How predictable.
Yay transparency!
Don’t worry. I’m sure someone will be recording the proceedings.
Unless they ban smart phones…
Why doesn’t she just borrow one of Obama’s teleprompters and let the reporters question it?
Scary, scary people. Wanna be dictators, in every which way.
We nearly had a banana republic after 8 years of Odumbo. They’re trying again to seal the deal.
Traitor ‘Happy John’ Brennan should be locked up in the same cell as hillary clinton. With no toilet.
This is most likely NOT the doing of A O-C. She likes talking to the press. If she did n ot, we would not have been subjected to nearly non-stop media interviews and late night television show appearances. This is most likely the doing of her campaign handlers who are terrified that she will sink her campaign by simply opening her mouth. This is probably her best campaign strategy.
She ought to sew her mouth shut. At least then she’ll have an excuse not to insert her foot in her mouth every time she speaks.
The little fascist is a non-player anymore. Voters have just proven that.