On Wednesday (July 20), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) denied claims she had faked being handcuffed when she and fellow Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) got arrested while protesting near the Supreme Court.
The pair were among 17 House Democrats who had been detained on Tuesday (July 19) for blocking traffic during a protest.
Video footage of the incident showed Ocasio-Cortez being escorted by law enforcement while her hands were behind her back in what appeared to be handcuffed. But later, in the same clip, she lifts a fist to the crowd in a show of solidarity, revealing that she had not been handcuffed.
Omar, who also has her hands behind her back, repeats the move.
Shortly after footage of the incident emerged, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace (South Carolina) criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s actions as being purely performative, stating, “Politics has become performative art. So of course @aoc fakes being in handcuffs. Performance, not policy, is the name of the game up here.”
However, the New York Democrats defended her actions, saying she wasn’t faking but had her hands behind her back to avoid escalating the situation.
“No faking here. Putting your hands behind your back is a best practice while detained, handcuffed or not, to avoid escalating charges like resisting arrest. But given how you lied about a fellow rape survivor for “points,” as you put it to me, I don’t expect much else from you.”
Mace and Ocasio-Cortez have been feuding since February 2021, when the South Carolina Republican said she believed AOC — a sexual assault survivor — was exaggerating her fears she would be raped during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Ocasio-Cortez responded by saying she felt Mace — a fellow rape survivor — was silencing other victims by expressing doubt regarding AOC’s claims.
