This Ocasio-Cortez “Interview” Is a Clever Hoax

A cleverly doctored “interview” with rising political star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went viral on Facebook today. Over a million people had already watched the video, less than 24 hours after it was posted by a conservative group called Conservative Review TV. You can watch the interview here.


The Video Pokes Fun At Ocasio-Cortez’s Supposed Lack of Experience and Depicts Her as Hopelessly Naive

The video shows Allie Stuckey of Conservative Review TV (CRTV) and Alexandri Ocasio-Cortez, a candidate for Congress in New York and a rising star in the Democratic party. The video was created using clips from Margaret Hoover’s interview with Ocasio Cortez for “Firing Line” — those clips are spliced together with Allie Stuckey’s “questions” so that Ocasio-Cortez appears to be answering Stuckey’s questions.

There are also plenty of close-ups on Ocasio-Cortez smiling gently and saying nothing.

Stuckey asks Ocasio-Cortez, “Do you have any experience that qualifies you for this job?” and Ocasio-Cortez says, “I was growing up during the Clinton era, and then basically, when I was in middle school, 9/11 happened.”

Later, Stuckey asks Ocasio Cortez to “put socialism in your own words.” Ocasio-Cortez says, “unprecedented concentration of wealth at the very top, tippy-top, of the one percent.”


The Original CRTV Post Didn’t Make It Clear That the Video Was a Hoax

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CRTV has been heavily criticized for not making it clear enough that the “interview” was actually a parody. When they first put up the video, CRTV presented it as if it were real. It wasn’t until a few hours later that they added a note saying: Update: Yes, this is satire created from excerpts of the viral Firing Line interview with Ocasio-Cortez.

By that time, the video had already gone viral, with close to a million views. And, while some people figured out that the “interview” was a parody, others weren’t sure. Many people seem to have been taken in. A number of commenters took the video for real, and saw it as evidence that Ocasio Cortez is a weak and unqualified politician. Debbie Sylverster wrote, “This woman has to be one of the dumbest, poorly educated and unqualified people to ever run for office. Only Maxine Waters is dumber.” And Becky Wilson Mangin wrote, “What a dummy this Alexandria is…. doesn’t even know what socialism is or what countries are ruled by it, knows nothing about our US political system or even the Middle East … She’s s prop for the socialists and is pathetically uninformed! These are the types of young people ( millennials) who are being “indoctrinated and used” by the far left and really just want the lime light ! Sad!”

And


Ocasio-Cortez Says The Video Is Proof Republicans Are “Scared” Of Her

Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to complain about the “fake news” interview after it went viral on Facebook. The candidate said, “Republicans are so scared of me that they’re faking videos and presenting them as real on Facebook because they can’t deal with reality anymore.” And she reminded her followers, “election day is November 6.”