This Tuesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, earning 78 percent of the votes in New York's 14th district. On Wednesday, the New York Times published a very nice profile of her, in which she explained that it was going to be difficult for her, a person who had most recently been making 29K a year, to afford to live in in Washington, DC -- a place with a very high cost-of-living -- for three months without a salary.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said the transition period will be "very unusual, because I can't really take a salary. I have three months without a salary before I'm a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real." She said she saved money before leaving her job at the restaurant, and planned accordingly with her partner. "We're kind of just dealing with the logistics of it day by day, but I've really been just kind of squirreling away and then hoping that gets me to January."

Now, to me, a person who also could not afford to live in Washington, DC, for three months without a salary (Or possibly even with one! It is really expensive there!), that seems like a fairly normal thing to say. In fact, it also makes a pretty good point about the fact that there are financial barriers to being elected to office that make it a pretty tough thing for a regular, non-rich person to do. But I do not work for Fox News, where the very idea of such a thing is just silly.

One of the running themes of AOC criticism on the Right has been trying to prove that she is actually a secret rich person who was working as a bartender making 29K a year for however long in order to disguise this fact so that she could run for office as a socialist and look like a "woman of the people" or something. They have been eager to point out her upbringing in this sprawling mansion in fancypants Westchester County ...

... and the fact that one time she did a photoshoot for a magazine in which she wore some very expensive clothes ... that they lent to her.

These were two of the things brought up by Fox's Ed Henry to bolster his theory that AOC was only pretending to not be able to afford rent in a very expensive city with no income. In fact, he wanted to know why she did not just sell those fancy clothes she was wearing in that dang photo shoot! Surely, she could afford it then!

America's Newsroom - 10:14:08 AM - 10:14:39 AMyoutu.be

Is it that Ed Henry does not know how these photo shoots work, or that he thought she should have stolen the clothes from the photo shoot for rent-paying purposes? Is that it? Or is he just saying things he knows aren't true because it's what his audience wants to hear? Is he, perhaps, just really, really stupid?

Ocasio-Cortez has since responded:

Haha! It is funny when people can't afford to pay rent.

Now, I'm not going to call anyone out specifically, but I've seen a few Dems on Twitter also joining in the "Haha, she can't pay DC. rent, what a loser! She just makes us all look irresponsible! What? Does she expect the American people to pay her for three months she's not working??!?" fun because they are mad at her for liking Bernie or whatever. This is gross! Do not do this! I happen to like her a whole lot, but you can dislike her all you want, you can hope and pray that Crowley gets the seat back in the next election, but let us please leave the "being shitty to people about not having money" to the Republicans. Thank you.

And now this is your open thread!

[New York Times]

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