By now, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s M.O. has become clear: make an ignorant or outrageous statement, and then play the victim when she rightly receives pushback.
The most recent example of this shtick was the recent claim by Ocasio-Cortez that Fox News ran a “doctored” video of her making inflammatory remarks about the supposed Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, a charge the cable news network has flatly denied.
The Backstory
The Daily Caller reported that the freshman representative’s remark came during an interview on The Intercept’s podcast.
While speaking with podcast hosts, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that a July 2018 interview between her and PBS Firing Line host Margaret Hoover “got doctored and then the doctored video was the one that ended up on Fox News and then like everyone just sees the doctored version instead of the actual exchange.”
Among many other questionable things, Ocasio-Cortez said during that interview with Hoover: “I also think that what people are starting to see in the occupation of Palestine is just an increasing crisis of humanitarian conditions, and that, to me, is just where I tend to come from on this issue.”
When asked to explain what she meant when referring to Israel as an “occupying” force, the then-congressional candidate admitted: “I’m not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.”
Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks Israel, calls them the occupiers of Palestine.
When pressed on what she meant she struggled to give an answer and then admitted she does not know what she is talking about. pic.twitter.com/e3Uq1eupD3
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 16, 2018
The “Doctored” Clip
Unsurprisingly, Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks about Israel and Palestine drew plenty of criticism, and clips of the interview with Hoover were spread far and wide on broadcast, cable, and social media.
In fact, about a week after that interview gained attention, CRTV’s “Conservative Millennial” Allie Beth Stuckey produced a parody of the interview in which Stuckey placed herself in Hoover’s position, and interjected fake questions between Ocasio-Cortez’s real responses.
That parody video gained traction among conservatives on Twitter and even ended up on Fox News, where, according to Fox, it was run as a work of satire that was poking fun at the socialist candidate and not represented as the actual interview.
Enlightening & hard-hitting interview with Socialist “it girl” and fellow millennial, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. pic.twitter.com/4txoxwqql6
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) July 23, 2018
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A spokesman for Fox News later told The Daily Caller that “nothing was doctored.”
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez has offered up no evidence to support her claim that Fox News “doctored” her interview with Hoover. Her office declined to comment further on the matter.