AOC pushes back on claims she faked being handcuffed during arrest

The progressive lawmaker was one of more than a dozen members of Congress who were arrested on Tuesday in the midst of an abortion rights demonstration

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez outside of the Supreme Court

(Getty Images)

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to critics on Twitter after she was accused on Tuesday of faking being handcuffed by police while getting arrested during a protest.

The New York congresswoman was one of 17 Democrats who were arrested on Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court during a demonstration that was shut down by US Capitol Police. The department confirmed that 35 people were arrested in total.

In pictures and videos from the scene, Ms Ocasio-Cortez is seen with her hands behind her back after the arrest begins. At one point, she puts one fist in the air in a triumphant gesture.

Some critics on social media, mostly on the right wing, suggested that she was faking being handcuffed for the cameras. One of those critics was Nancy Mace, a Trump loyalist and South Carolina congresswoman who won her primary last month despite losing former president Donald Trump’s endorsement to a competitor.

“Politics has become performative art. So of course @aoc fakes being in handcuffs. Performance, not policy, is the name of the game up here,” the South Carolina Republican tweeted.

The New York congresswoman responded to Mace’s tweet by saying she was not trying to give the illusion of being handcuffed by putting her arms behind her back, but was instead attempting to avoid more serious charges like resisting arrest.

“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,” she wrote back.

The two House members have a long history of animosity, dating back to the days immediately following the January 6 attack on Congress. At that time, Ms Mace accused her rival of being dishonest about barricading herself in her office during the attack, given that rioters did not make it to the part of the office building where Ms Ocasio-Cortez was located.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez has countered that the Republican congresswoman is, like many of her colleagues in the GOP, minimising the danger posed to lawmakers on January 6 regardless of whether they reached the correct part of the labyrinthian US Capitol complex where lawmakers were hiding.

Videos from the day of the attack show rioters making violent threats against Ms Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats like Nancy Pelosi.