Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday for a statement that his campaign never issued.
The incident first began after a photograph of a group of young men, donning the majority leader’s campaign t-shirt and posing with a cutout of the New York congresswoman, circulated around social media. The picture was taken over the weekend at the annual Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky and was posted to Instagram with the caption “break me off a piece of that Fancy Farm.”
“Hey [McConnell] – these young men look like they work for you,” Ocasio-Cortez said referencing the picture. “Just want to clarify: are you paying young men to practice groping [and] choking members of Congress [with] your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch? Thanks.”
A spokesman for the McConnell campaign responded to Ocasio-Cortez, denying that the group had any affiliation with the Senate majority leader. He further slammed the self-proclaimed “radical” congresswoman and left-wing media for using the picture to “demonize, stereotype, and publicly castigate every young person who dares to get involved with Republican politics.”
“These young men are not campaign staff, they’re high schoolers,” Kevin Golden, McConnell’s campaign manager said in a statement. “It’s incredible that the national media has sought to once again paint a target on their backs rather than report real, and significant news in our country.”
“Team Mitch in no way condones any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life-sized cardboard cutouts of any gender,” Golden said in a separate statement.
The campaign later followed up in a series of tweets contending that the freshman congresswoman and liberal Twitter personalities are trying to publicly reveal the personal information of the minors, and further stated that the same individuals “are cheering on thousands of accounts calling for Senator McConnell to ‘break his neck.’”
The campaign’s Twitter account also posted a video of an “angry left-wing mob” that showed up at McConnell’s private residence only a night prior. On the recording protesters can be heard wishing harm upon the Senator, such as saying they hope somebody would “just stab the motherf***er in the heart.” McConnell has been recovering from a broken shoulder after he fell in his home.
The Daily Beast reported on the heated exchange on Tuesday, but rather than quoting McConnell’s response, the left-leaning news outlet misleadingly paraphrased the comment when posting the article to the brand’s Twitter account.
“Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager essentially says boys will be boys in response to that image of teens groping and choking a cutout of [Ocasio-Cortez],” The Daily Beast tweeted along with the published article.
Ocasio-Cortez immediately seized upon the made-up statement and further implied that the majority leader has an agenda against women:
“Boys will be boys,” Ocasio-Cortez replied quoting The Daily Beast. “Is that also the reason why you’ve chosen to block the Violence Against Women act too, [McConnell]? It prevents dating partners [with] records of abuse + stalking women (also an early warning sign from many mass shooters) from obtaining a gun.”
The New York congresswoman followed up with two identical tweets questioning where McConnell stands on issues such as H.R. 8, a bill establishing background checks between private parties, and H.R. 1112, dubbed the “Charleston Loophole” bill.
“Boys will be held accountable for their actions, starting with Mitch McConnell,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “#WheresMitch”