Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasts The Daily Caller for fake "nude selfie"

The right-wing website has since deleted the tweet

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published January 10, 2019 10:43AM (EST)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Getty/Don Emmert)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Getty/Don Emmert)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has blasted a conservative media outlet for teasing a fake nude photograph of her.

Although The Daily Caller admits in the article that the picture — which shows a woman's feet sticking out of a bathtub — belongs to Sydney Elaine Leathers, the former mistress of disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., the headline proclaimed "Here's The Photo Some People Described As A Nude Selfie Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez." Not surprisingly, Ocasio-Cortez was not happy with the attempt to discredit her, even if it was done in an indirect way.

"GOP have been losing their mind + frothing at the mouth all week, so this was just a matter of time. There is also a Daily Mail reporter (Ruth Styles) going to my boyfriend’s relative’s homes+offering them cash for 'stories.' Women in leadership face more scrutiny. Period," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in her first tweet on the subject.

In a follow up, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that "for those out of the loop, Republicans began to circulate a fake nude photo of me. The @DailyCaller reposted it (!) and refused to indicate it was fake in the title as well. Completely disgusting behavior from Conservative outlets. No wonder they defended Kavanaugh so fiercely."

In her last tweet on the subject, Ocasio-Cortez wrote that "if they want to make an example out of me, I will gladly be one. Hopefully we can be an example of dedication, courage, and persistence under fire. Or compassion, thoughtfulness, curiosity, justice, and zeal. I also hope to be an example of not tolerating nonsense, too."

The conservative website has since deleted the tweet:

Although Ocasio-Cortez didn't elaborate on what she meant when she described conservatives as "frothing at the mouth," it's likely that she described the intensely hostile reaction of right-wing media outlets to her political career. Indeed, conservatives have been trying to characterize Ocasio-Cortez as both a radical liberal and the new face of the Democratic Party.

In an episode of "The View" on Wednesday, co-host Meghan McCain denounced Ocasio-Cortez's views on abolishing ICE before adding, "What I’m trying to tell you is if Democrats want to win in 2020, don’t demonize people that want hard border security -- and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a huge voice in the party, and what she is talking." This was in spite of the fact that co-host Whoopi Goldberg insisted that Ocasio-Cortez isn't a major player in the Democratic Party at this point.

Similarly, Jonathan S. Tobin of National Review wrote an op-ed on Thursday which lumped Ocasio-Cortez into the same category as Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., as being new power players in the Democratic Party, at least when it comes to their hold on publicity.

Since their victories last year, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) have been acclaimed as the future of the Democratic party. Each brings her own assets and liabilities, but collectively they have become symbols of the incoming House Democratic class that is, as the party boasts, younger, more female, and more diverse. They are also much further to the left than the liberal leadership of the Democratic caucus.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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