Ocasio-Cortez bans press from town hall event
More than 300 newspapers recently published a joint editorial criticizing Donald Trump for threatening the freedom of the press. But, to date, there haven't been more than a handful of editorials written criticizing socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for banning the media from a town hall event last weekend.
Ocasio-Cortez's explanation for preventing media coverage of the event reveals who really threatens freedom of the press.
Replying to a reporter who questioned why the event was closed, she tweeted, "Our community is 50% immigrant. Folks are victims of DV, trafficking, have personal medical issues. This town hall was designed for residents to feel safe discussing sensitive issues in a threatening political time. We indicated previously that it would be closed to press."
After you pick your jaw up off the floor, you might want to tie it to your head after you hear more:
In a story first reported by the Queens Chronicle, her campaign manager, Vigie Ramos Rios, said the ban stemmed from the press attempting to question Ocasio-Cortez after a community meeting in the Bronx, despite the campaign saying ahead of time that there would be no question or interview opportunities after the event. Rios said that the candidate was "mobbed" by reporters, leading to the campaign to restrict the press from covering an event last Wednesday and Sunday.
"We wanted to help create a space where community members felt comfortable and open to express themselves without the distraction of cameras and press," campaign spokesman Corbin Trent said in a statement to the Chronicle. "These were the first set of events where the press has been excluded. This is an outlier and will not be the norm. We're still adjusting our logistics to fit Alexandria's national profile."
So she doesn't want all these bothersome questions from the media because she was "mobbed" previously. One can imagine her potential constituents gamely trying to get a word in edgewise as the press badgers, harasses, and asks stupid questions of the candidate.
Or not. You could imagine the press penned up at the town hall in its usual way, listening and recording without comment. How this "threatens" people is not explained by the campaign. Is her staff so incompetent that it can't organize a public event where the press is, as fully expected, penned up in a designated area while town hall attendees are free to ask questions of the candidate?
Ocasio-Cortez has been burned by displaying a shocking ignorance of the issues time and time again. She didn't want the press there so she could be free to spout her nonsensical positions on issues without worrying that her fact-free presentations would show up on Fox News. She's more than a "loose cannon." She's an atomic bomb of idiocy, and using the weird notion that people with "medical issues" wouldn't feel "safe" if the media were allowed to cover the event doesn't pass the smell test.
Primary voters have wholeheartedly and decisively rejected the candidates she was backing. I guess the revolution is going to have to wait until the clueless socialist either grows up or familiarizes herself with the issues.