Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted on social media about an incident on the Capitol steps that she describes as sexual and racial harassment. It happened Wednesday and the culprit was a right-wing social media activist known for being an agitator. What makes the story a bit more interesting is that AOC claims she was going to “deck” the guy but then decided to just stop and take a selfie with him.
It’s a perfect AOC story. She’s all about saying public figures just have to suck it up and accept that harassment is a part of their lives but when it happens to her, all bets are off. Discontented protesters are within their rights to yell their grievances in public spaces, it happens all the time. Activist Alex Stein stood on the Capitol steps and yelled at AOC as she walked up the steps. He was a safe distance away from her. She was walking with two other people. When AOC went to respond to Stein, one of those people intervened to keep AOC back from Stein. Sandy from the Bronx said she was going to deck the guy because a nearby Capitol Police officer didn’t do anything to protect her. She was going to protect herself.
There’s no way that’s true, of course. Can you imagine the headlines if AOC hauled off and punched a right-wing agitator? Stein would have hit a career-high point. Alas, it was not meant to be. The cop just let it all play out and no one was injured.
Here is a video he posted of the incident. I was actually walking over to deck him because if no one will protect us then I’ll do it myself but I needed to catch a vote more than a case today pic.twitter.com/RdwCNBDIBb
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 14, 2022
Stein’s verbal harassment of AOC was both sexual and racial in nature. It was disgusting. Fortunately, he wasn’t as close to her as he sometimes is to those he is harassing. I’ve written about him before this incident. Last month he attended the Republican Party of Louisiana’s state convention and scored some publicity for harassing Ted Cruz and Dan Crenshaw. He also attends city council meetings to perform his routine during public comments. He has a YouTube channel and this is what he does.
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Yelling at her about her booty and her tight dress was certainly obnoxious and not civil behavior. It’s cat calls. Bringing in the fact that she’s a Latina takes the harassment up a notch into the racial territory. His point, though, seems to be that he was criticizing her support for abortions. With all the other people being harassed about the issue of abortion – like Supreme Court justices and pro-life support centers – it’s kind of ironic that AOC wants to act aggrieved about this guy yelling at her across some steps in a public space.
AOC is indignant that a Capitol Police officer was nearby and didn’t intervene. She said, “It’s just a bummer to work in an institution that openly allowed this.” Allowed what? An activist to yell on Capitol Hill? If that was worthy of intervention on its own, Capitol Hill officers would have their hands full pretty much every day lately. There didn’t appear to be any physical threat to AOC and that is probably what the police officer was seeing, too. Her impulse to go over and punch the guy seems extreme, right? Especially for an elected official. Stein made his harassment very personal in a sexual way, that’s obvious, and it is no doubt part of his way of agitating for attention.
Protestors, political activists and even aggressive “trackers” from opposing parties are fixtures of Capitol Hill, following and shouting at lawmakers. But Ocasio-Cortez drew a contrast between political and protest activity and sexualized approaches, lamenting that a nearby Capitol Police officer didn’t intervene.
“This wasn’t about a political opinion, protest or anything like that. He was engaged in very clearly sexually threatening aggressive behavior right in front on the Capitol steps in front of an officer and he wasn’t even asked to take a step back,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram video. “Like, this officer was just cool with it.”
Stein’s “hot tamale” comment sounds a lot like Jill Biden referring to Hispanics as breakfast tacos, doesn’t it?
AOC made the wise choice of restraining herself and diffusing the situation by stopping for a photo with the guy, from a safe distance. I think she got a little of her own medicine. She expects other protests and activist harassment to be normalized in politics today. The same goes for her. The cop was there and standing between Stein and where AOC was walking up the steps. He did his job.
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