Left-wing Congress representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has slammed news broadcaster NBC for claiming she is disloyal to her Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Joe Biden after she cast her nomination for his rival Bernie Sanders.
"In one of the shortest speeches of the DNC, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse Joe Biden", NBC tweeted on Tuesday night in reference to AOC’s 99-second speech that focused on praising Sanders and his "democratic socialist" agenda.
That tweet was deleted hours later. The 30-year-old New York congresswoman also took to Twitter to accuse the channel of "misinformation".
"You waited several hours to correct your obvious and blatantly misleading tweet", she wrote. "It sparked an enormous amount of hatred and vitriol, & now the misinfo [sic] you created is circulating on other networks".
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.
Democratic National Convention officials were quick to point out that it was routine for delegates to cast votes for their pledged presidential hopeful and speak in their favour, despite the 78-year-old conceding in 77-year-old Biden’s favour months ago.
The runner up in the Democratic nomination race is traditionally honoured at the convention, held this year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but with delegates attending virtually via video-conferencing.
In another tweet, AOC endorsed Biden, saying: "I deeply look forward to fighting for our future together and reclaiming our democracy in November".
Biden’s choice as his running mate of unpopular rightwinger Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the primaries early on due to lack of support, was seen as a slap in the face to Sanders and his supporters.
Fox News host and commentator Sean Hannity tweeted that AOC was "not letting go", with one user sarcastically replying that AOC "has spoken" and Sanders was now the Democratic nominee.
Hawkish Republican senator Lindsey Graham tweeted that the sanders, fellow leftwinger Elizabeth Warren and four-congresswoman Democratic "Squad", which includes AOC, control Democratic policy making and "Joe Biden is merely along for the ride".
But some Twitter users expressed support for Ocasio-Cortez.
Others, however, took a more cynical view of her performance.