NEW YORK, NY – Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed on Monday that comments she made in July regarding the Israeli “occupation of Palestine” were doctored and circulated in the media.
“The ‘Firing Line’ [interview got] doctored and then the doctored video was the one that ended up on Fox News, and then, like, everyone just sees the doctored version instead of the actual exchange,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept, referring to a July 2018 interview with Margaret Hoover.
Ocasio-Cortez faced backlash after the PBS interview aired for not being able to defend the positions she promulgates regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I also think that what people are starting to see at least in the occupation of Palestine is just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition,” Ocasio-Cortezsaid in July. “And that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue.”
Hoover followed up, questioning what the self-proclaimed socialist meant by “occupation of Palestine.”
“Oh, um, I think what I meant, is, like, the settlements that are increasing in some of these area and places where, um, difficulty and access to, um, their housing and homes,” Ocasio-Cortez answered before conceding that she is “not the expert on geopolitics” on this issue.
Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks Israel, calls them the occupiers of Palestine.
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 16, 2018
When pressed on what she meant she struggled to give an answer and then admitted she does not know what she is talking about. pic.twitter.com/e3Uq1eupD3
Days after the interview aired, conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey created a mock interview where she juxtaposed herself asking questions against Ocasio-Cortez’s answers from the Firing Line interview.
Stuckey defended the satirical interview, but Ocasio-Cortez alleged that Republicans were faking videos of her comments because they were afraid of her and “can’t deal with reality.”
Ocasio-Cortez specifically claimed her comments about Israel were doctored, as first reported by The Daily Wire. However, the Stuckey’s parody interview does not mention either Israel nor Palestine. Those comments only appear in the original “Firing Line” interview.