Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday used Twitter to call out the hypocrisy of Republicans who “stalk my livestreams” on social media and “obsess over any & every word.”
“Meanwhile, many GOP electeds hide from constituents & avoid town halls,” the lawmaker wrote. “Maybe that’s why they’re so preoccupied w/mine.”
Ocasio-Cortez regularly takes questions from constituents via live sessions on Instagram. She was likely responding to criticism she garnered from some conservatives after saying in a broadcast Tuesday that people weren’t visiting Asian and Chinese restaurants in the U.S. “because of just straight-up racism” around the coronavirus, which originated in China.
“Honestly, it sounds almost so silly to say, but there’s a lot of restaurants that are feeling the pain of racism,” she said. The segment was later amplified by a reporter for the right-wing website, The Daily Wire.
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments linking coronavirus to racism are well founded, however, with racist fear-mongering reportedly contributing to considerable declines in sales and visitors to Asian American-run businesses.