Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy was left totally confused after Twitter tagged one of his tweets scorching Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for wearing a dress emblazoned with the words “Tax the Rich” across the backside to attend one of the ritziest and most exclusive celebrity events of the year.
Portnoy tweeted, “‘Tax the Rich’……But first I’m gonna go have the time of my life partying with them all at the most extravagant over the top party of the year that is essentially a celebration of richness.”
Portnoy later tweeted a screenshot of his previous message, this time with an overlay claiming that the tweet was misinformation because it was “Missing Context.”
What? pic.twitter.com/acnOm8E36w
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 16, 2021
“Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people,” Twitter claimed.
The post was also reportedly removed from search, according to users who responded to Portnoy’s tweet.
The Met Gala is, of course, an extremely exclusive party. Although Ocasio-Cortez is reported to have been “compted” a ticket to the event by the Metropolitan Museum of Art itself, tickets typically range from $35,000 to $250,000, and attendees, per economics commentator Megan McArdle, often use their ticket purchase as a sort-of “tax shelter.”
Regardless, even those who purchase or receive free tickets must have their attendance approved by “Vogue” legend Anna Wintour, who hand-picks the crowd at the Met’s annual fete.
Ocasio-Cortez also may have gone as a guest of the Met, but she attended alongside the designer of her dress, Aurora James, whose boyfriend is the heir to the Seagram’s family fortune — an estimated $2.5 billion.
Twitter users, of course, immediately set about mocking the social media platform’s decision to fact-check Portnoy.
“Independent Fact Checkers at Snope (sic) state that the party is ‘actually not the most extravagant over the top party of the year’ per data compiled by party experts,” one user joked.
“The missing context is that they detected you didn’t agree with her,” noted another.
“This is disturbing,” added another. “That Twitter so overtly trips over itself to ensure supposedly balanced takes of certain political darlings but allows outrageous misinformation from others so long as they are aligned with a specific narrative.”
Ocasio-Cortez faced a wave of criticism for her decision to attend the Met Gala — a decision she defended by claiming that she was there representing the “working class.” She later branded criticism of her Met Gala dress “sexist” and suggested it was propagated by “haters.”
“And before haters get wild flying off the handle, New York elected officials are routinely invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing and supporting the city’s cultural institutions for the public,” the representative wrote on Twitter. “I was one of several in attendance in this evening.”
Her gown was custom made (though AOC noted later that it was “borrowed” from designer James. Her accessories, also likely borrowed, as The Daily Wire noted Wednesday, totaled over a thousand dollars.