Did AOC Tweet About Wanting to Keep the Economy Closed to Hurt Trump?

In a since-deleted viral tweet, Florida congressional candidate Jessi Melton shared a screenshot that appeared to depict a tweet from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling to keep the economy shut down so as to hinder Donald Trump’s re-election chances.

Though she has deleted her original tweet, Melton doubled down, saying, “We don’t know for sure if she really tweeted it.”

https://twitter.com/votejessi2020/status/1275553922892120065

We do, however, know for sure that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t tweet it. As a popular political figure, Ocasio-Cortez’s social media pages are frequently saved in the internet archive the Wayback Machine. Her Twitter profile was archived on May 21, and does not show the tweet. Additionally, ProPublica maintains a database that archives deleted tweets from politicians. The alleged tweet from Ocasio-Cortez does not appear on her page in the database.

Melton’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

Comments (22)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.