“She offers the reassuring warmth of Oprah, the fire-and-brimstone of Jonathan Edwards; the inspiration of John F. Kennedy; the intimacy of an FDR fireside chat. It was exhausting and reassuring and scary and comforting and extremely weird.”
This is an actual excerpt from a soon-to-be-released book about “the greatness,” “the beauty,” and the “rare authenticity” of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, titled “Take Up Space: The Unprecedented AOC,” which comes to us from a group of New York magazine scribes.
“The Unprecedented” is clearly so far beyond parody that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson felt compelled to devote his Friday night opening monologue to summing up the highlights of what he calls “a book-length suck-up to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.”
And naturally, Ocasio-Cortez turned to Twitter to hit back.
She had to. Carlson’s amusing, biting, commentary shined the light of reality on one of the most disingenuous, sycophantic, and just plain ridiculous portrayals ever of the woman known as AOC.
To highlight the absurdity, Carlson had passages read aloud by a senior producer on his show.
One passage reads: “To say she is a feminist is to understate the facts. Ocasio-Cortez is the first politician in history to live fully out loud while female. And the degradations of womanhood are personal to her.”
Carlson told his viewers, “No one has done more personally to degrade American womanhood than Sandy Cortez has. She is living proof that 60 years of feminist liberation did not work. Sandy Cortez is not empowered. She is neurotic and silly.”
He played a portion of makeup tutorial video she recently made for Vogue magazine.
“As a woman of color,” she lamented, rolling her eyes at the unfairness of it all, “it’s so hard to be taken seriously. … People already try to diminish me, diminish my voice, as young and frivolous and unintelligent.”
Regarding her reference to herself as a woman of color, Carlson said, “No one ever dares to challenge that description, but every honest person knows it is hilariously absurd. There is no place on earth, outside of American colleges and newsrooms, where Sandy Cortez would be recognized as a, quote, ‘woman of color.’
“Because she’s not. She’s a rich, entitled white lady. She’s the pampered, obnoxious ski-bunny in the matching snowsuit who tells you to pull up your mask while you’re standing in the lift line at Jackson Hole.
“They’re all the same. Doesn’t matter what shade they are,” he added.
Carlson continued: “Apparently, the editors of New York magazine don’t ski. They spend the entire book pretending that Sandy Cortez has just emerged from some teeming favela in the slums of Rio to save the world’s poor. Reading it, you would have literally no clue she was a credentialed member of the overclass. You’d think she was St. Francis.”
The narcissistic congresswoman didn’t like it — at all. Immediately, she took aim at Carlson on Twitter. “This is the type of stuff you say when your name starts with a P and ends with dejo,” she wrote. It was a reference to the Spanish word “pendejo,” a Spanish equivalent of “a**hole.”
This is the type of stuff you say when your name starts with a P and ends with dejo https://t.co/92chHFQUN7
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 19, 2022
Later in the video, about the 9:20 mark, Carlson played a clip from CNN video that showed “Sandy Cortez,” as he often refers to her, sitting inside her empty apartment assembling a table she’s purchased from IKEA.
He rightly pointed out that, “It takes a special kind of narcissist to imagine that the world desperately wants to see you bolt together a particle board coffee table.”
The producer then read from the relevant book passage:
“She has no agenda, nothing in particular to get off her chest. It really is as if she were exhausted and wanting to talk. ‘I’m alone today,’ she says pointedly at the camera.”
Continuing his roast, Carlson said: “Imagine you were the person who wrote that … The least compelling film made since Andy Warhol died, and this is what you call it, ‘she shone a bright light on her own complicated multi-faceted self.’ That’s the moment you have to be honest with yourself and say, ‘Time for me to retire.’
“By the way, the person who wrote this didn’t even perceive how creepy it was. ‘I’m alone today, Ocasio-Cortez says pointedly at the camera’ – Is it just us, or does that sound like an invitation to a booty call? Maybe one step from ‘what are you wearing?’ Either way, it’s a little strange, it’s definitely oversharing.”
The former bartender from the Bronx hit back with the following tweets:
Any man that talks like this will treat any woman like this.
Doesn’t matter if you’re Republican, Democrat, or neither, this is clearly not a safe person to leave alone w/ women.
Once again, the existence of a wife or daughters doesn’t make a man good. And this one is basura 🚮
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 19, 2022
Trying hard to establish her bona fides as a woman of color, AOC called Carlson “basura,” a Spanish word for “trash.”
Remember when the right wing had a meltdown when I suggested they exhibit obsessive impulses around young women?
Well now Tucker Carlson is wishing for… this on national TV.
You’re a creep bro. If you’re this easy w/ sexual harassment on air, how are you treating your staff? https://t.co/RFbOIRSmxQ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 19, 2022
Actually, one of Ocasio-Cortez’s best-known remarks pertained to the alleged sexual frustrations of conservatives specifically in regard to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
If Republicans are mad they can’t date me they can just say that instead of projecting their sexual frustrations onto my boyfriend’s feet.
Ya creepy weirdos https://t.co/Z7bZCgXpWJ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 31, 2021
Carlson mocked that episode in his monologue as well. “The editors at New York Magazine are highly impressed by the way Ocasio-Cortez looks. They think she’s hot. It’s a major theme in the book,” he said. “In fact, it’s a major theme with Ocasio-Cortez herself. She talks about her beauty constantly.”
Carlson recalled that, “Just a few weeks ago, she let us know how hard it is that everyone wants to sleep with her all the time. What a burden. It’s like living as a nudist in the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room. Men are so aroused by her TikTok videos, she can barely get through a day, yet she does her job anyway. That’s why she’s a hero.
“The burden of sexiness weighs heavily on her sleek and tawny shoulders,” he said, “but she bears up under it.”
The producer resumed reading from the book: “Ocasio-Cortez would have been well aware of her impact on others. Her rhetoric could be confrontational and her politics countercultural, but her appearance conformed to society’s conventions. With her wide-apart eyes, arched brows and tawny complexion, she could have modeled for a skin-care line and, in fact, later capitalized on these assets by shooting a makeup tutorial for Vogue.”
Because few of Carlson’s viewers will read “The Unprecedented AOC,” he was right to let them in on just how divorced from reality this book really is.
But AOC’s own charged rhetoric has no basis in fact.
“Any man that talks like this will treat any woman like this,” she wrote. “…this is clearly not a safe person to leave alone w/ women.”
The implication is obvious: Tucker Carlson, a wildly successful figure in political commentary and one of the most famous men in America, is capable of sexually harassing “any” woman if the opportunity presented itself.
Her depiction of Carlson makes it sound like he’s Jeffrey Epstein. Even those who dislike the conservative host wouldn’t call him a serial sexual harasser.
Carlson has been working in corporate America — and the national spotlight — for many years. If he were sexually harassing all of the women around him, he would have been run out of the media a long time ago (or still working at CNN). Instead, he’s a top-rated anchor respected by his peers and audience.
In the dishonest political calculation of an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, however, Carlson’s criticism can be spun as proof he will sexually mistreat women. For a certain brand of politician, truth is irrelevant. She’s happy to spew that baseless rhetoric in the public square.
AOC can’t seem to stop herself from making crazy statements.
Her reckless remarks have robbed her of her credibility.
If she truly wants to understand why conservatives don’t take her seriously, she should review some of the mindless remarks she’s posted to Twitter over the past few years. It will tell her all she needs to know.
