Conservative blogger posts fake interview mocking upstart socialist Ocasio-Cortez

Conservative journalist and blogger Allie Beth Stuckey has posted a fake interview – using mashed-up clips from a real one — with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, discrediting the 29-year-old socialist running for Congress in New York.

Stuckey’s video, which she posted to her Twitter page labelled as an “enlightening” and “hard-hitting” interview, purported to show Ocasio-Cortez lost for words, confused and unable to coherently articulate her political beliefs. The heavily edited clips were taken from a real interview on PBS’s Firing Line show with Margaret Hoover, which Ocasio-Cortez had given a week earlier.

In the mash-up, Ocasio-Cortez appears unable to answer basic questions about her socialist ideology and the direction socialism might take her country. The clip also makes it seem as though she thinks that Venezuela is in the Middle East, with Stuckey ‘correcting’ her on her geography and knowledge of international politics.

But while many conservatives loved the obviously fake interview and found it funny, Ocasio-Cortez fans were not laughing. Stuckey was flooded with angry comments on Facebook for failing to accurately label the video as satire. One commenter said he had reported it to Facebook as “fake news”. Another commenter wrote that “fake news from the right is just as damaging and dishonest as fake news from the left.”

Republicans and Democrats alike have been piling on Ocasio-Cortez since her surprising primary win against establishment Democrat Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district in June. While figures from both parties say her policies are too progressive and socialist, her supporters claim that she and others like her represent a real threat to the status quo and have simply rattled the establishment.

Lending some credibility to that argument, one Republican congressman, Ron Desantis, who is a candidate for governor of Florida — nowhere near New York’s 14th Congressional District — referred dismissively to Ocasio-Cortez as “that girl, or whatever she is” at a campaign event at the weekend. “I mean, she’s in a totally different universe. It’s basically socialism wrapped in ignorance,” he told his audience.

The 29-year-old political newcomer, who was a volunteer for Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016, hit back at Desantis on Twitter, clearing up the confusion about “whatever she is” by referencing her Puerto Rican heritage and noting that 75,000 Puerto Ricans had relocated to Florida since Hurricane Maria devastated the US island territory.

“I’m sure these new FL voters appreciate your comments!” she wrote.