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Thread: Is AOC’s Cinderella Origin Story a Sham?
Did Justice Dems discover AOC through a nomination process as they claim, or did they discover her during Bernie’s 2016 campaign and concoct an elaborate Cinderella origin story to make her look like less like a puppet?
Did Justice Dems discover AOC through a nomination process as they claim, or did they discover her during Bernie’s 2016 campaign and concoct an elaborate Cinderella origin story to make her look like less like a puppet?
Let’s start with what I will refer to as the “Cinderella Video,” which is a high production-value video released by Justice Dems in January 2019, establishing what can be considered the canon of AOC’s Cinderella Story:
Before we get started, keep in mind that the people seen in the Cinderella Video with AOC claim not to have known her before her brother nominated her. But these people were Bernie’s 2016 grassroots organizing team, and AOC helped run Bernie’s grassroots campaign in the Bronx.
Which seems more likely: the elaborate Cinderella Story is true or the elaborate Cinderella Story was concocted by Bernie’s grassroots organizing team after being wowed by the firebrand Latina running their Bronx operation?
Let’s see how well the Cinderella Story holds up.
Let’s see how well the Cinderella Story holds up.
Let’s first analyze the claim made at the beginning of the Cinderella Video that Brand New Congress (“BNC,” a sister PAC of Justice Dems founded by Bernie’s grassroots organizing team) received over 10K nominations and AOC was picked like Cinderella from that huge sea of people.
BNC was formed as a PAC in April 2016 and first began soliciting nominations for Congress around the time of the 2016 DNC convention in late July 2016: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/07/29/Whats-next-for-Sanders-backers-Replace-the-entire-Congress/3271469782923/
BNC’s Isra Allison, the same woman who the Cinderella Video establishes as the person who first contacted AOC in December 2016, appeared on RT (Russian state TV...
) that same month claiming BNC had received “2,500+ nominations” (see below at 9:40):
) that same month claiming BNC had received “2,500+ nominations” (see below at 9:40):
Even if you buy the claim that BNC had received 2,500+ nominations by December 2016, that left them well off pace to end up with the 10,000+ nominations claimed in the Cinderella Video. By March 2017 the claim more than *tripled* to a whopping 8,300. https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/democrats-vs-trump/democrats-beware-sanders-movement-turns-midterms-n735301
In late January 2017, Justice Dems was formed and associated with The Young Turks as their propaganda outlet, which may have increased the nominations received, but this happened *after* December 2016 when BNC claims they selected AOC anyway.
I’m guessing BNC had a couple hundred nominations when they claim to have picked AOC, but falsified the number to sex up their Cinderella Story.
Even in 2020, when you’d expect nominations to be up from the AOC publicity, BNC only claimed to receive “hundreds” of nominations: https://twitter.com/brandnew535/status/1179449176565911552
Even in 2020, when you’d expect nominations to be up from the AOC publicity, BNC only claimed to receive “hundreds” of nominations: https://twitter.com/brandnew535/status/1179449176565911552
Here is AOC’s side of the Cinderella story:
1. AOC didn’t plan to run
2. AOC’s brother nominated her
3. AOC made a spiritual journey to Standing Rock in December 2016; BNC didn’t know about that trip and just happened to first contact her right as she was leaving Standing Rock
1. AOC didn’t plan to run
2. AOC’s brother nominated her
3. AOC made a spiritual journey to Standing Rock in December 2016; BNC didn’t know about that trip and just happened to first contact her right as she was leaving Standing Rock
AOC claims she didn’t plan to run in 2016, yet in 2016 she hired a “career coach” to help her become a political activist, who told her to volunteer on the Bernie campaign and to go and visit activist hot spots like Flint, Michigan and Standing Rock. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/career-coach-megan-hellerer-helped-aoc-go-from-bartender-to-congress.html
AOC calls her career coaching “part of a series of events that culminated in this big adventure of a Congressional run!” Sounds more like a carefully crafted and planned Congressional run to me.
How about the claim that AOC’s brother nominated her? Let’s revisit the Cinderella Video:
At 0:25: “My brother told me he had sent my nomination in the summer [of 2016] but I was like literally working out of a restaurant then and there was like no way.”
At 0:25: “My brother told me he had sent my nomination in the summer [of 2016] but I was like literally working out of a restaurant then and there was like no way.”
In July 2018, the story was a little different, with the brother asking permission:
“her brother had asked her if he could send in the form and, on a lark, she said O.K. ‘But I was also working in a restaurant!...it was, like, Eff it. Sure. Whatever.’” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-historic-win-and-the-future-of-the-democratic-party
“her brother had asked her if he could send in the form and, on a lark, she said O.K. ‘But I was also working in a restaurant!...it was, like, Eff it. Sure. Whatever.’” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-historic-win-and-the-future-of-the-democratic-party
In 2020, the story changed again, with the nomination in November not “in the summer” and it being a “letter” not a “form”:
“Just after the [2016] election, Gabriel sat in his car during a rainstorm and typed a letter on his phone nominating his sister.” https://time.com/5786180/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-standing-rock/
“Just after the [2016] election, Gabriel sat in his car during a rainstorm and typed a letter on his phone nominating his sister.” https://time.com/5786180/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-standing-rock/
In September 2020, Gabriel appeared on a podcast and, of course, was asked to tell the nomination story. Gabriel was pretty sketchy on the details and seems not to recall this incredibly pivotal moment in his life very well at all. (Starting at 26:40) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/las-culturistas-with-matt-rogers-and-bowen-yang/id1092361338?i=1000489850682
On the podcast, Gabriel claims he pulled his car over in a rainstorm and nominated AOC but, even though he knew the event would change his life, is vague as to when it happened. On follow up, he settles on 2017, which is both impossible and inconsistent with the Cinderella Story.
Gabriel is then asked how he came to know about BNC and gives a rambling, vague answer and transitions to a seemingly made-up-on-the-fly description of his nomination, which consisted of him being “like, you *better* call her!”and saying he offered to pay them if they would.
Gabriel is an unreliable narrator and seems to be making up this story, with no clue when, and a non-sensical account of how, it happened.
Overall, the various stories of Gabriel’s nomination are inconsistent and the whole thing seems contrived. I don’t buy it.
Overall, the various stories of Gabriel’s nomination are inconsistent and the whole thing seems contrived. I don’t buy it.
The stories of how BNC first contacted AOC are even more inconsistent. Let’s start with the Cinderella Video:
At 2:00- “I walked out of [Standing Rock] and was like what do I do and literally that day I get this email like *this* is what you do!”
At 2:00- “I walked out of [Standing Rock] and was like what do I do and literally that day I get this email like *this* is what you do!”
So according to canon:
1. initial contact from BNC was an email
2. she got it the day she left Standing Rock.
As we will see, in various accounts initial contact changes between email and a call and timing changes from the day she left Standing Rock to the day she returned.
1. initial contact from BNC was an email
2. she got it the day she left Standing Rock.
As we will see, in various accounts initial contact changes between email and a call and timing changes from the day she left Standing Rock to the day she returned.
Here AOC describes first contact as a call she got while leaving Standing Rock: https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1010654967840104449
Here’s AOC in January 2020 repeating the canon version and saying first contact was an email she opened while driving out of Standing Rock:
Near the end of this video, AOC describes it as a phone call from Justice Democrats (not even from BNC) that she received the day she left Standing Rock
In this version, AOC says she got a call from BNC the day she got back from Standing Rock, meaning this version changes both facts from what we were told in the Cinderella Video: https://twitter.com/codeforpdx/status/1013303340778700800
This account goes into detail, describing first contact as a call:
“On the drive out of the reservation, [AOC] got a call from an unknown number. When she picked up the phone in Maria’s borrowed Subaru, a voice...said they were calling from BNC.” https://time.com/5786180/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-standing-rock/
“On the drive out of the reservation, [AOC] got a call from an unknown number. When she picked up the phone in Maria’s borrowed Subaru, a voice...said they were calling from BNC.” https://time.com/5786180/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-standing-rock/
This account describes a call:
“In late December, 2016, Isra Allison, one of BNC’s lead organizers, called [AOC] just as she was leaving...Standing Rock. “She told me what BNC was about,” [AOC] recalled. “I was just, like, ‘O.K., I’m listening.’” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-historic-win-and-the-future-of-the-democratic-party
“In late December, 2016, Isra Allison, one of BNC’s lead organizers, called [AOC] just as she was leaving...Standing Rock. “She told me what BNC was about,” [AOC] recalled. “I was just, like, ‘O.K., I’m listening.’” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-historic-win-and-the-future-of-the-democratic-party
Here’s another version saying first contact was a call when she got *back* from Standing Rock:
“When she got home from her North Dakota trip, a leader of BNC called her out of the blue” https://www.insider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-biography-2019-1
“When she got home from her North Dakota trip, a leader of BNC called her out of the blue” https://www.insider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-biography-2019-1
I’m quite sure I could go on and on finding more explanations of this event, all of them differing in details.
But if this is such a critical part of AOC’s origin story, why doesn’t she remember the details the same each time? Sounds to me like this whole story is made up.
But if this is such a critical part of AOC’s origin story, why doesn’t she remember the details the same each time? Sounds to me like this whole story is made up.
In fact, each and every part of AOC’s Cinderella Story sounds like it was made up, from the number of nominations she was picked from, to whether she wanted to run, to the way AOC was nominated, to the way she was selected.
Seems to me that this whole story is bogus and AOC was likely known to BNC from the Bernie campaign rather than being selected, but that story didn’t sound great, so they made up a Cinderella Story instead.
We know AOC went to Standing Rock because she live-streamed her trip. But I suspect the trip was staged by BNC to give AOC street cred. AOC tips her hand to this in the Cinderella Video, saying: “I’ve literally been live streaming my life and *our* political action since 2016.”
How was AOC live-streaming BNC’s political action in 2016 if she wasn’t first contacted by them until her way home from that trip?
The Cinderella Story sounds like a fraud and the real story is that BNC knew AOC from the Bernie campaign.
The Cinderella Story sounds like a fraud and the real story is that BNC knew AOC from the Bernie campaign.
So why does this matter? Well, for one thing, the truth matters. But also, the voters thought they were electing Cinderella, not one of the evil stepsisters.
You can’t just con the electorate and call that no big deal. It’s a big deal.
You can’t just con the electorate and call that no big deal. It’s a big deal.
