This past April, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez complained that the New York Post’s decision to overlay a photo of the September 11 attacks with a response to Ilhan Omar’s “some people did something” remarks was “upsetting and triggering for New Yorkers” who were there:
AOC on NY Post/Ilhan Omar front page: “We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color and if they can’t figure out how to get it back to policy, we need to call it out for what it is because this is not normal.” pic.twitter.com/Zxad5H4I8n
— Jason Donner (@jason_donner) April 11, 2019
To commemorate the 18th anniversary of the attacks, Snopes apparently decided to teach all the people who had called AOC out a lesson by doing one of their patented fact checks:
Oh.
A Snopes article debunks itself pic.twitter.com/mUPGUzF2YP
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 16, 2019
To be fair, AOC wasn’t exactly saying that the public shouldn’t see images from the attacks. No, she was just saying that New Yorkers could be triggered by those images when viewed in the context of Ilhan Omar’s disgusting remarks. And that the New York Post’s cover, like others’ criticism of Omar’s remarks, was basically an incitement to violence against progressive women of color. Pretty nice of Snopes to focus on people’s response to AOC’s remarks as opposed to the actual problems with those remarks. God forbid Snopes dedicate their best and brightest to debunking AOC’s flagrantly intellectually dishonest spin. They’d much rather spin on AOC’s (and Omar’s) behalf:
Recommended
In a version of one such smear, launched on Sept. 11, 2019, various websites and social media users twisted comments she had made months prior to make them appear she had suggested the public should no longer see images from the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
“Ocasio-Cortez Says we Shouldn’t Show the Public Photos of 9/11 Anymore,” one such headline stated. “AOC says remembering the 9/11 attacks is an incitement of violence against Ilhan Omar and other Progressive women of color,” tweeted one social media user.
But that’s not what Ocasio-Cortez said. And though many of these posts were made on the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, she made the relevant comments in April 2019.
In her statement, Ocasio-Cortez was blasting yet another bad-faith interpretation of comments made by her fellow freshman congresswoman, Ilhan Omar. The Democrat from Minnesota is one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress and the first to wear a hijab, or a religious head covering, while doing so.
“Another bad-faith interpretation” of Omar’s remarks, by which they mean “an accurate framing of Omar’s callous and vile remarks.” But hey, congratulations to Ilhan Omar for being the first hijab-wearing member of Congress. That’s what’s really important here and obviously negates any criticism of Omar and her defenders.
Snopes clearly know where their bread is buttered and they’re not about to jeopardize that.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member