Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Out White House Press Secretary

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kayleigh McEnany

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, leaves after speaking at a press conference calling for an end to immigrant detentions along the Southern United States border held at the United States Capitol in Washington, DC.
Representitives Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez press conference, Washington DC, USA - 07 Feb 2019

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 30, aka AOC, doesn’t let someone mistake her position as a U.S. Representative for something else without calling them out and she proved it in her latest tweets. The politician, who is Puerto Rican, was responding to a tweet that mentioned White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, 32, incorrectly calling her “Biden advisor”, during a press briefing on June 8 and she didn’t hesitate to bring up how the difficulties of being “a person of color” may have something to do with it.

The @PressSec comment is steeped in a long, hurtful, & horrendous history of stripping women of color of titles and diminishing them to “the help.”

Perhaps she isn’t aware that what she did is mired in racist history. If that is the case, I look forward to her apology tomorrow.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 8, 2020

“@PressSec wouldn’t be the first person to mistake a women of color for having a lower position or title than she does, but Kayleigh – in case you haven’t picked up a newspaper in two years, I’m a Congresswoman,” one of her tweets read. She followed it up with a second tweet that went into further detail about how she feels McEnany’s comment derives from the hate women of color have had to endure throughout history and encouraged her to apologize.

“The @PressSec comment is steeped in a long, hurtful, & horrendous history of stripping women of color of titles and diminishing them to ‘the help’, she wrote. “Perhaps she isn’t aware that what she did is mired in racist history. If that is the case, I look forward to her apology tomorrow.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking at an event. (Shutterstock)

McEnany was talking about AOC’s desire to “defund the police” in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement protests when she called her an “advisor” to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, 77, in the briefing, and admitted that although President Donald Trump, 73, feels that black lives matter, he doesn’t agree with defunding. “The fact that you have sitting congresswomen wanting to defund the police… notably Biden advisor AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez… it is extraordinary,” McEnany said.

Kayleigh McEnany during a White House briefing. (Shutterstock)

Before McEnany called AOC “advisor” she did refer to her as “a sitting congresswoman” in the same sentence, so it’s not clear whether or not she intentionally referred to her with both titles or made a mistake, but the memorable moment definitely sheds light on the struggles people of color have been trying to stop. Since the tragic death of African American man George Floyd, at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, thousands of people worldwide have been taking to the streets to protest and seek justice for Floyd and people of color everywhere. AOC has been using her platform to share videos and more showcasing police brutality, including officers using rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray to try and control the crowds of protesters during the demonstrations.