On August 19, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was given only one minute to speak at the virtual U.S. Democratic National Committee convention—and unsurprisingly, her speech was just as powerful and electrifying than ever before.
Following Michelle Obama’s impactful speech at the event, the Congresswoman effortlessly made a powerful case for the Democratic party’s prospective future, adding to her track record of empowering public addresses.
Ahead of Ocasio-Cortez’s slot at the convention, the Young Delegates Coalition launched a petition calling her 60-second speaking time limit “unacceptable”, particularly in a lineup that already prioritises older, white, often-quite-wealthy people at the expense of its young progressives.
However, the time restraint made no difference to the impact she made, in fact she made more of a mark than most others gifted with extra time to share their values.
“Good evening, bienvenidos, and thank you to everyone here today endeavouring towards a better, more just future for our country and our world,” she began.
Throughout her time on-screen, Ocasio-Cortez used her minute to re-surface important issues, from America’s colonialist roots and the economic brutality of their capitalist system, to the implicit fact that it won’t only be citizens, but “all people in the United States” who are affected by the outcome of November’s election.
Highlighting and offering her gratitude for the “mass people’s movement”, Ocasio-Cortez addressed how said movement has been “working to establish 21st-century social, economic, and human rights, including guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages, and labour rights for all people in the United States.”
“A movement striving to recognise and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonisation, misogyny, and homophobia,” she continued. “And to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past.”
Her hard-hitting speech also included her endorsement for Senator Bernie Sanders for the U.S. presidency, instead of Joe Biden. While leaving many confused, as Sanders had suspended his campaign back in April. Oscasio-Cortez took to Twitter to explain her decision.
However, NBC News were quick to point out that her endorsement of Sanders, did not include support for Joe Biden, saying in a tweet: “In one of the shortest speeches of the DNC, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse Joe Biden: ‘I hereby second the nomination of Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America.’”
Immediately, others responded to NBC‘s tweet, pointing out that Ocasio-Cortez’s role was to formally second the nomination of Sanders, not to address the actual ticket that would be voted on later that evening. Several critics called for NBC to delete its tweet, including the Congresswoman herself.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted three times at NBC, starting shortly after midnight with this: “You waited several hours to correct your obvious and blatantly misleading tweet. It sparked an enormous amount of hatred and vitriol, & now the misinfo you created is circulating on other networks. All to generate hate-clicks from a pre-recorded, routine procedural motion.”
Following the outrage, NBC deleted the tweet four hours later, announcing that it “should have included more detail on the nominating process” and that it had deleted the tweet “to prevent its further spread.”
However, Ocasio-Cortez and her supporters have suggested that the network knew it was common for seconding speeches to be short and that they used this fact to try and manufacture controversy in search of web traffic.
Ocasio-Cortez’s latest address at the DNC also followed her incredible speech in July, where she responded to her colleague, Republican representative Ted Yoho, who stopped her on the steps of the Capitol to call her “rude,” “disgusting,” and a “f**king bitch.”
This address, more or less completely improvised by Ocasio-Cortez, took aim at Yoho for his double standards on misogyny, and went viral almost immediately.
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