Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Attempt to smear congresswoman with clip of her dancing backfires
Social media users - including Russell Crowe - defend the politician over the viral video of her dancing on a campus rooftop.
Friday 4 January 2019 20:15, UK
Critics of America's youngest-ever congresswoman have attempted to discredit her with a video of her dancing on a rooftop as a student - but their attempts appear to have backfired.
Many social media users have defended Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after the clip, which showed her swirling and shuffling on the building as part of a popular internet trend, was widely circulated on Twitter before she was sworn in on Thursday.
She responded to her critics by posting a video of her dancing into her new office to the song War by Edwin Starr.
In her tweet, she added: "I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous. Wait till they find out congresswomen dance too! 💃🏽"
One critic sharing the old video from 2010 on Twitter had written: "Here is America's favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is."
Another wrote: "After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is forced out of office after one term she can go dance on a stage that has a pole."
The full "Brat Pack Mashup" video, which was filmed at Boston University and includes several other students dancing, was first uploaded to YouTube in more than eight years ago and showed participants imitating scenes from famous 1980s films.
The 29-year-old Democrat graduated from the university in 2011 after studying economics and international relations.
At the time of the video's release, Boston University wrote on their website: "Using the European band Phoenix's Lisztomania, the students created what they call the BU 'Lisztomania' Brat Pack Mashup, a homage to the original, which first aired on YouTube last year.
"The mashup, a remix of song and video clips, was an instant sensation and has been replicated worldwide."
Actor Russell Crowe was among those to back the politician after the footage resurfaced, saying he thought she was "fantastic".
"The more politicians we have like @AOC the sooner we'll all be dancing," he tweeted.
"This is a real person, in touch with her roots. She has a perspective, a work ethic and a humanity-based philosophy that seeks the best outcome for the most people... more power to her."
Comedian Patton Oswalt questioned what was wrong with Ms Ocasio-Cortez "dancing adorably and having fun with her friends".
And Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty added: "Now she's totally done for. Newly unearthed video reveals that when @AOC was in college, she was... adorable."
Another new congresswoman to have caused a stir is Rashida Tlaib, who used some very strong language to describe Donald Trump hours after she was sworn in as one of the first two Muslim women in Congress.
Speaking at an event in Washington, the new Michigan representative was recorded as saying: "Bullies don't win... because we're going to go in there and we're gonna impeach the motherf*****."
She is also the first Palestinian-American to be elected to Congress and wore a traditional thobe as she was sworn in.
Fellow Democrat lhan Omar, who is of Somali descent and represents Minnesota, became the first person to wear a hijab in the chamber.