A town hall meeting held by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Queens on Friday night descended into farce as the firebrand was called a ‘piece of sh*t’ and berated for her views on Ukraine, migrants, drag queen story hours and the debt ceiling.
The meeting was held in the Corona neighborhood, AOC’s constituency. Her constituents were not in welcoming mood, especially when the town hall moved to to the question and answer stage.
‘American citizens before migrants,’ one heckler yelled. Others chanted: ‘America first.’
Another shouted: ‘We are on the verge of nuclear war with Russia. Are you going to stop this war?’ shouted another, according to video recorded by conservative activist group Freedom News TV.
Video shows one protester, wearing a Cuba t-shirt and waving miniature American flags, being led away by security after repeatedly calling AOC a ‘piece of sh*t’ and asking: ‘Where are you on the migrant issue?’
An Iraq veteran attempted to defend the Bronx-born Democrat by saying: ‘Immigrants have nothing to do with vets, it’s just an excuse. We all, for the most part, came through Ellis Island.’ At that point a protester interjected: ‘Legally!’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a town hall meeting in her constituency in Corona, Queens, on Friday night
The meeting was bombarded with protesters, one man was escorted out after he called the congresswoman a ‘piece of sh*t’
AOC protesters demanded to know why the congresswoman continued to support sending billions to Ukraine while many are struggling in Queens and The Bronx
In social media posts heralding the event, AOC made no reference to the protesters
One prominent sign read: ‘AOC: An obvious criminal.’ Others had phrases such as: ‘Stop funding Ukraine,’ ‘American First. Vetted legal migrants only’ and ‘AOC: Stop pushing drag queen story hour’
Another woman was removed when she yelled: ‘Stop funding this war, there’s a lot of communities that need help and need that money. I’m from that community’
‘I don’t like that Republicans passed a $1.7 trillion tax cut on the wealthiest people in this country,’ told the crowd to large applause.
One prominent sign read: ‘AOC: An obvious criminal.’ Others had phrases such as: ‘Stop funding Ukraine,’ ‘American First. Vetted legal migrants only’ and ‘AOC: Stop pushing drag queen story hour,’ reports the New York Post.
The congressman was criticized loudly by one protester for voting in favor of sending $100 billion to Ukraine following the Russian invasion after she made remarks in favor of removing the debt ceiling.
When that protester was shouted down by someone telling him to wait his turn, he replied: ‘Freedom of speech!’
President Joe Biden said a deal to resolve the government’s crisis seemed ‘very close’ late Friday, even as the deadline for a potentially catastrophic default was pushed back to June 5 and seemed likely to drag negotiations between the White House and Republicans into another frustrating week.
Social media posts from AOC’s team following Friday’s town hall made no reference to the protesters.
‘Thank you to everyone who joined us for tonight’s May town hall in Corona! We had such great turnout, even on Memorial Day weekend!,’ a Facebook post from her official page read.
‘It was awesome answering all your questions, discussing the debt limit negotiations, and more. See you next month!,’ the congresswoman tweeted in a separate post.
In 2022, AOC was pictured dancing along on-stage as protesters chanted ‘AOC must go’ at a town hall in Queens
In 2022, AOC famously danced along to protesters at a town hall who made a drum beat telling her to resign.
The grinning congresswoman shrugged off the aggressive criticism as she sipped from a water bottle and began to move her shoulders in beat with the chants.
She sat on a stage throughout, and continued to smile even as one furious woman appeared ready to combust with rage while screaming herself hoarse from the seats.
Comedian Alex Stein posted a video of AOC commanding the crowd to ‘listen!’
He jokingly wrote, ‘I can’t tell you in words how much it turns me on when AOC talks like this!’
Some scolded the sitting member for her apparent disregard for the views of the people who put her in office.
‘You’re [sic] own constituents heckled you the other night and you just started dancing and degrading them? Hopefully they’re actually waking up and realizing that you have yet to pass one single piece of legislation for them or anyone else and they’ll vote you out of office!’ wrote Brent Smith.
A user identified by the handle @nashland wrote, ‘You are an embarrassment and disgrace, sitting there ‘dancing’ at your town hall meeting instead of addressing the very serious issues people are raising. You think war is funny?’
Tiffany Justice, the cofounder of parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty, wrote: ‘Any good leader would be thoughtful when handling constituents who are upset with their leadership. Not this woman.
‘Watch as AOC sits, legs spread wife open, mocking her constituents by dancing and stocking out her tongue as they tell her they want her out of office. Gross,’ she said.
As the shouts in the room grew louder, AOC said to one man in the crowd, ‘very classy, thank you Sir.’
Earlier this week, AOC mocked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch, saying on Twitter that more people watched her play videos games than watched his announcement.
While this month, the congresswoman made headlines for openly referring to the Marine veteran involved chokehold death of homeless Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely on May 1st.
She tweeted before charges were filed that Neely’s ‘murderer’ was being ‘protected’ while ‘many in power demonize the poor.’