Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s reason for banning the press from last Sunday’s public town hall event left already concerned reporters even more baffled than before.
The New York Congressional candidate, who defeated Rep. Joe Crowley in June and is set to become the youngest woman elected to Congress, took to Twitter Friday afternoon to explain the reasoning behind her decision.
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.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) August 17, 2018
Additionally, with this town hall non-story: it was designed to protect + invite vulnerable populations to PUBLIC discourse: immigrants, victims of domestic abuse, and so on.
We indicated previously that the event would be closed to press. Future ones are open.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) August 17, 2018
“Our community is 50% immigrant,” she tweeted. “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. Additionally, with this town hall non-story: it was designed to protect + invite vulnerable populations to PUBLIC discourse: immigrants, victims of domestic abuse, and so on. We indicated previously that the event would be closed to press. Future ones are open.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets came in response to The Washington Post’s Seung Min Kim, who tweeted that Ocasio-Cortez was “in for a rough time on Capitol Hill — where reporters roam freely at all hours of the day and night — if this is her attitude toward the press.”
“Campaign says ‘We wanted to help create a space where community members felt comfortable and open to express themselves without the distraction of cameras and press,'” Kim continued. “Then make it a private event. Don’t make it a public event and then ban the press.”
Campaign spokesman Corbin Trent had earlier stated that press would be welcome as long as “logistics” could be adjusted “to fix Alexandria’s national profile” (RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez Shuts Press Out Of Event That Was Open To Public)
But many reporters weren’t buying any of the Democratic Socialist candidate’s explanation. Here’s a sampling of Twitter skepticism expressed in response to her latest tweet:
You cannot ban members of the press from events that are otherwise open to the public.
That is not how it works.
Period. https://t.co/sqe9HWTEEb
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) August 17, 2018
So people at a public event feel safer if the press is excluded, @Ocasio2018? I just don’t see how that works, let alone in a world where everyone with a phone is basically a reporter. https://t.co/Qm6id66rO1
— Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) August 17, 2018
1. It was a public event.
2. Why would the media make people feel unsafe? https://t.co/DPluarIsJI— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) August 17, 2018
It’s really quite condescending to call it a non-story @Ocasio2018 – it’s very simple, if you wanted a private event, keep it private. But you chose to ban the press from a public event. https://t.co/12qFq5ihjo
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) August 17, 2018
If it’s not open to the press it’s not a public event. It’s a private one. That’s fine, just don’t pretend it’s a public event when it most certainly is not. https://t.co/LI1lCZTUs4
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) August 17, 2018
Calling a legitimate story (reporting on a campaign’s barring of press at an otherwise public event because the campaign felt it would be a distraction) a “non-story” is not a good look. https://t.co/VhYfr7y5BC https://t.co/GKS33R2Anh
— Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) August 17, 2018
Every politician in NYC holds constant events in immigrant communities and has done so since the dawn of time, the press covering these forums is totally normal. https://t.co/pyK7mf5JbC
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) August 17, 2018
Finally, the New York Times’ Jose Del Real drew a “flashback” to the last presidential election when he and other Washington Post colleagues “were banned from Trump campaign events and town halls.”
This is alarming whether it’s happening on the right or the left. Having flashback to the 2016 election when me and my then-colleagues at WaPo were banned from Trump campaign events and town halls. https://t.co/vWPhiv4nku
— Jose A. Del Real (@jdelreal) August 18, 2018
