Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Blasts Fox News After They Mock Her For Not Being Able To Afford DC Apartment
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who this week became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress — blasted Fox News for mocking her personal finances as a working-class person.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez recently made headlines after she revealed that she will not be able to afford an apartment in the expensive city of Washington until she gets her first salary as a congresswoman, the Huffington Post reported.
The 29-year-old Democrat representative-elect — who comes from a working-class background and used to serve drinks and tacos in Manhattan — said in a New York Times profile that the transition to being in Congress and moving to D.C. will be “very unusual” for her because she can’t take a salary before being sworn into the office in January.
“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, per the Huffington Post.
Following her statement, a Fox News panel on Friday morning thought that the comment was a political ploy from the self-identified Democratic Socialist, per NBC News.
Although Fox News contributor Judy Miller admitted that housing in Washington D.C. is expensive, she said that Alexandria’s statement was “a brilliant political line” that will play well with her base.
1. @FoxNews, why can’t any of your anchors say my name correctly? It’s been 5 months.
2. It is bizarre to see 1%-salaried anchors laugh at the US housing crisis.
3. Never purchased pricey clothes + always told my story. But repeating lies until they are believed is your thing. https://t.co/Py5aXFi3Z4
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 9, 2018
Fox News anchor Ed Henry further mocked Ocasio-Cortez on the panel and suggested that she shouldn’t be wearing “multi-million dollar outfits that could pay a month’s rent in D.C.”
Upon hearing the comments, Ocasio-Cortez took to her Twitter and slammed the remarks, saying that she has “never purchased pricey clothes.”
“There is no reason to be ashamed or embarrassed. Mocking lower incomes is exactly how those who benefit from + promote wealth inequality the most keep everyday people silent about 1 of the worst threats to American society: that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.”
She also explained how 40% of all Americans struggle to pay for one basic need like food or rent at present, and added that as much as Fox News “likes to mock the working-class, the real scandal is that at the wealthiest point in our history, we are at one of our most unequal.”
Following Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets, Fox News anchor Ed Henry addressed her criticism on Saturday morning’s episode of Fox & Friends and acknowledged that housing is, indeed, expensive in Washington, per the Huffington Post.
“Look, I get it,” Henry said. “I live in Washington. It’s very expensive… Members of Congress make $174,000 a year. That’s a lot more than people around the country.”
He then invited her to his show to discuss the issue of the housing crisis in America.
“Let’s talk about that issue. You are a congresswoman now or are going to be very soon. Come on Fox.”
