Star lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was heckled while giving a town hall, making her the latest member of Congress to be loudly confronted by upset constituents.
The incident occurred during a town hall on Friday night in the Democrat’s home district in Queens, New York. A woman in the crowd, who identified herself as a nurse, stood up and began shouting as the Democratic Congresswoman described which parts of her district are “under threat” by the Department of Government Efficiency cuts.
“I want to know what you’re doing about the genocide in Gaza!” the woman shouted, pointing at Ocasio-Cortez on the stage. “Shame on you! You’re a liar!”
The Congresswoman, who remained calm amidst the shouting, repeated that she would be “happy” to take her question and said “we’ll get to that in the Q&A” portion of the evening.
Still, the woman persisted and was met with boos from other audience members. Some even shouted at her as others waved for her to leave the room.
The heckler was eventually escorted out of the event, footage shows.
“Here’s the deal, with town halls: I more than welcome people who disagree or are maybe even super pissed off at me for any issue to come but we have some ground rules here. Please wait for the Q&A because we don’t want to deprive all of our neighbors of the ability to have information and hear things and respond to it,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd.”
The stop in her home visit comes as the New York Democrat has been hosting the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders, filling arenas across the country.
The heckling at Ocasio-Cortez’s event is just the latest public town hall where lawmakers have faced outcry from the crowd.
Last month, a group confronted California Democrat Laura Friedman in the middle of her town hall, accusing her party of not doing enough to push back on President Donald Trump’s agenda. “I don’t believe that you have fought hard enough!” one protester shouted.
A handful of Republicans have also been the target of their constituents’ rage over the Trump administration’s sweeping moves over the past 100 days.
Police tased two individuals and charged three after a group disrupted Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s town hall last month. “This is a peaceful town hall,” she told the crowd.
In late February, Georgia Rep. Rich McCormick’s constituents booed and asked angry questions at his town hall. One attendee even asked what the Republican Congressman planned to do to “rein in the megalomaniac in the White House?”
That same month, a 54-year-old veteran was escorted out of a town hall following a shouting match with North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards. “And you wonder why folks don’t want to do town halls anymore?” the Congressman quipped.
