Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has spoken out after video emerged appearing to show House Republican Lauren Boebert engaging in what the New York congresswoman described as “sexually lewd acts” in a Colorado theater on September 10.
Boebert and a male companion were thrown out of the Buell Theatre in Denver after repeatedly vaping, using a cell phone and “causing a disturbance” during a performance of musical Beetlejuice.
Surveillance footage from inside the theater appeared to show Boebert’s male accomplice groping her breasts, and then being groped in turn by the Republican firebrand. In a statement, Boebert apologized for her behavior, which she claimed “fell short of my values,” but made no reference to the alleged sexual acts.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to the controversy in a one-minute video posted to her 323,000 TikTok followers on Thursday, in response to a viewer’s question.
She commented: "All I gotta say is I can’t go out to lunch in Florida in my free time, not doing anything, just eating outside and it’s wall-to-wall Fox News coverage and then you have a member of Congress engaging is sexually lewd acts in a public theater and they got nothing to say.”
“I danced to Phoenix once in college and it was like all over the place. But putting on a whole show of their own at Beetlejuice and there’s nothing? I’m just saying be consistent. That’s all I’m asking for. Equal treatment. I don’t expect it, but come on.”
Right, but that’s also where it’s up to us to help call it out.
AOC’s fighting exactly our fight, and the minute we get complacent, I say that’s where we suck.
Right. Use these kind of hypocritical acts as ammunition with conservative supporters. They’ll fight you. They’ll get angry and defensive. They’ll say it’s not the same.
Don’t let them get away with it. It is the same. Just keep saying that. Call them delusional. Call them out of touch.
Embarras the fuck out of them. They might not change their minds, but they will shut the fuck up and maybe even have second thoughts when voting.
That isn’t how anything works though. The Backfire Effect and Confirmation Bias are the reason they dig their heels in harder the more you go to facts and figures. They don’t care about reality. Even worse, when you engage them, it gives them an audience for the slapfight so they can show off to others how good they are at “debating,” which in this context means “saying Ben Shapiro lines then looking smug”
Exactly. The way to win people over isn’t to smash up their house and then tell them to build themselves one like yours. You need to build them a better place to live that feels doable for them and ask them to move in. Forgive my metaphor but it makes sense to me.