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New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been mocked by MAGA conservatives over her apparent adoption of a southern accent while delivering a speech in Tennessee.
The progressive addressed supporters in Memphis Friday but one particular moment sparked interest when it was shared on social media.
“We cannot afford to leave Tennessee behind!” Ocasio-Cortez says from behind a podium backing Justin J Pearson for Congress. “We cannot afford to leave Kentucky behind, Alabama behind, Mississippi behind, Georgia behind, South Carolina behind!”
A slight drawl noticeable in her repeated use of the word “behind” led pundit Benny Johnson to ridicule her on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Monday.
AOC had been stumping for State Rep.Pearson in the clip and went on to do the same for Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Lansing and Grand Rapids over the weekend, prompting Johnson to tell Hannity: “You know, I’m surprised AOC is not trying to speak in an Arabic dialect when she is in Michigan.
“This is a theater kid-occupied government, Sean. We have been warning about this for a long time. It’s called live action role playing, LARPing. These people don’t know who they are or where they are, they will change their accents.
“It’s this change of your accent I can’t get over. Barack Obama does this, Hillary Clinton famously does this.”
Pivoting to Hannity directly, Johnson asked: “Do you do this? You have millions of viewers across the south, you have millions of viewers in Texas, but I have never seen you do this show in a southern drawl, Sean. Why is that?”
The broadcaster said he had never adopted a southern accent, causing Johnson to speculate that Democrats “don’t know who they are”.
“The fundamental difference is these people don’t believe anything,” he said. “They don’t know who they are, they don’t know where they are from, and they don’t know what they stand for.
“People that know who they are, they don’t have to pander. You don’t use a Chinese accent when you go to a Chinese restaurant because you know who you are and where you’re from.”
Growing into his theme, the influencer said: “Conservatives have a fundamental bedrock of who we are as people, an ego, an ethos.
“We are Christian, we are American, we don’t have to pander, we are proud of where we are from, we are not ashamed of it. These people have to change their tune everywhere they go because they actually don’t believe in anything other than power, and power is the fundamental goal.
“In order to get power you want to try to bring those audiences to your side, so you change your accent and you change your affect in order to do that. It is very cringe.”
Other right-wingers accusing Ocasio-Cortez of inauthenticity included Glenn Greenwald, who claimed she had used “a fake preacher accent” and Scott Jennings, who presented examples of Clinton and Kamala Harris behaving similarly and called the trio “performers”, “actors” and “fakers.”
AOC has yet to comment on the response to her speech.
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