Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asks why 'so many grown men' on Fox News are obsessed with her

Congresswoman describes news channel's coverage of her as 'really weird'

Katie O'Malley
Friday 22 March 2019 18:20 GMT
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responds to the Fox News 'obsession' with her

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has questioned why so many “grown men” at Fox News are “obsessed” with her.

The democratic representative for New York's 14th congressional district made the comments during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Meyers asked the politician whether she felt surprised the news channel's had “shifted all its attention and programming” to her so quickly following her election to US Congress last year.

In response, Ocasio-Cortez drew applause from the audience when she described the channel's coverage of her as "weird", and asked: "Why are so many grown men obsessed with this 29-year-old? It's really funny."

Reflecting on her relationship with Republican colleagues who may watch Fox News, the New York-born congresswoman added: “One of the side effects of this Fox News lunacy is that other actual members of Congress believe it and see it uncritically.”

It comes hours after Ocasio-Cortez responded to comments the channel's Laura Ingraham show, which saw her described as “doing the Latina thing” when she pronounces her own name.

“She does the Latina thing,” attorney Joseph diGenova​, who is a frequent commentator on the network, told Ingraham. “Where she does [with Spanish accent] ‘Anastasio [sic] Ocasio-Cortez’,” he continued.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at a rally calling on Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to reject Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court on 1 October 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts

Ocasio-Cortez later responded to a tweet from journalist Issam Ahmed, who wrote that “some pundits dislike it when people of colour pronounce their own names correctly”.

“How dare they refuse to say their name in a wrong accent & not mangle their own family name so that I can feel more comfortable instead of look inside myself & examine why something as small as *a person’s name* makes me uncomfortable in the first place?? This is an outrage!” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, in faux indignation.

During the interview with Meyers, Ocasio-Cortez also spoke of her pride for the fact her office pays a living wage of no less than $52,000 (£39,400) a year to her staff.

“Two of my staffers have managed to be able to quit their second jobs in restaurants and be fully present at work and so I hope it’s a lesson to our folks on the other side of the aisle that if you pay your staff, you’ll be prepared,” she noted.

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The 29-year-old became the youngest women in history to be elected to Congress when she unseated Rep Joe Crowley last November.

Before launching a career in politics, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organiser for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign, and as a bartender in a New York restaurant.

Despite facing constant derision as a high-profile politician, she recently said it can be “empowering” to tell people to make fun of her, as doing so makes her critics looks “childish”.

"When you burst out that door and you're like, 'No, I'm not going to let you make me feel that way' - it's kind of jarring," Ocasio-Cortez told Vanity Fair earlier this month.

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