A Twitter user tried to humiliate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a 2010 video of her dancing, but it didn’t work out as they planned.
Julian Jensen/Howard Thurman Center/Screenshot by CNET
A day before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was sworn in as the youngest-ever US congresswoman, a Twitter user tried to embarrass her with footage of her dancing in college.
The video shows Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Boston University students dancing to a segment of Lisztomania by Phoenix.
“Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is,” read the tweet from @AnonymousQ1776, who incorrectly said it was from her high school days. The account and the post have both since been deleted.
It was a clip pulled from a longer video posted to YouTube in 2010 and inspired by the library dance scene from the 1985 movie The Breakfast Club. Ocasio-Cortez’s moves mirror those of Ally Sheedy.
If the tweet was an attempt to humiliate Ocasio-Cortez, it failed. Many people, including an array of celebrities, tweeted their support.
Well, @AOC is officially done. She’ll never recover from the world seeing her…
(watches video)
…dancing adorably and having fun with her friends in high school? https://t.co/0zENCzBinA
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 3, 2019
“She’ll never recover from the world seeing her… (watches video) …dancing adorably and having fun with her friends in high school?” wrote comedian Patton Oswalt.
Oscar winner Russell Crowe said “she’s fantastic,” while Star Trek‘s George Takei tweeted that he wants dance lessons from her.
It even won support from some Breakfast Club cast members, with Sheedy tweeting “I LOVE THIS” and Molly Ringwald telling Ocasio-Cortez that she’s “in the club.”
The clip also inspired a Twitter account called AOC Dances To Every Song, which embellishes the video with music ranging from David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel to the theme tune of anime classic Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has told 60 Minutes that she’s happy to be called a “radical” politician, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. She’s been the target of attacks from right wing media since her surprise primary victory over incumbent Joseph Crowley, the Washington Post noted.
But her Twitter account did retweet a tweet from Olivia Beavers, a reporter for the Washington-focused publication The Hill. Beavers wrote that she asked Ocasio-Cortez about the video, and got this response: “It is not normal for elected officials to have a reputation for dancing well and I’m happy to be one.”
Asked @AOC re this dancing video. She said:
“It is not normal for elected officials to have a reputation for dancing well and I’m happy to be one.”
& “It is unsurprising to me that Republicans would think having fun should be disqualifying or illegal”https://t.co/M0qMKmQ0ar
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) January 4, 2019
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