AOC Turned the Tables on Republicans in Less Than a Minute During the Coronavirus Relief Bill Debate

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

During today’s debate in the House of Representatives about a coronavirus relief package, Democratic firebrand Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave a 30-second speech attacking the Republican position. Sometimes good things happen under time restraints. Well, she actually spoke for almost 50 seconds, but who’s counting? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had accused Democrats of lacking urgency in passing the bill. Ocasio-Cortez turned McConnell’s attack on its head.

Ocasio-Cortez began by establishing her ethos: “On behalf of my constituents in the Bronx and Queens, New York’s 14^th Congressional District, the most impacted district in America.” Her thesis brought home the  coronavirus pandemic's human cost: “calling people, losing their families every day." She then quickly (what choice did she have? In only 30 seconds?) absolutely denied that the Republicans felt any urgency: “It is a joke when Republicans say that they have urgency around this bill. The only folks that they have urgency around are folks like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and Shake Shack.” That referred to the seeming glitch that allowed large chain restaurants to get a disproportionate share of the last "small business" bailout. “Those,” she insisted, “are the people getting assistance in this bill.”

Ocasio-Cortez insisted that, “you are not trying fix this bill for moms and pops.” Focusing instead on what she saw as a key issue, which was to fund hospitals and public health, she concluded: “And yet to fight to fund hospitals, fighting to fund testing, that is what we’re fighting for in this bill.” She stated that the Republican position was “unconscionable.” She said that if they wanted to treat the pandemic as urgent, “they should legislate like rent was due on May 1.” That powerful metaphor struck hard because rent relief is one of the Democrats’ priorities during the pandemic shutdown.

Ocasio-Cortez’ delivery might have been over-the-top for a congressional speech: she spoke rapidly and became louder and faster as her brief talk went on, waving her arms wildly. Still, I can’t blame her. Trying to rise above piles of controversy, bizarre conspiracy theories, and federal government lethargy, she instinctively recognized that no one would hear an ordinary speech. Her style must have worked: her brief appearance in Congress today became a featured clip on C-SPAN and it’s all over social media. Her short talk made the news. Ocasio-Cortez found a way to rise above the din. Her 30-second (50-second?) talk is probably the only thing people will remember from today’s congressional debate.

Lessons to learn? Every good debater knows how effective it is to turn the tables on your opponent, that is, to turn your opponents’ own argument against them. Republican leaders had insisted that the bill was urgent. But how urgent could it be to them, Ocasio-Cortez asked, if they were helping big business without adequately funding hospitals and public health testing? We see that energetic speakers get noticed. We see how a speaker can establish her standing with a couple of razor-sharp sentences right at the outset. We see that a short, well-prepared but extemporaneous speech can accomplish more than a long, tedious, rambling exposition. The biggest lesson that Ocasio-Cortez taught us is how important it is for a speaker to hit straight to an issue’s heart.

Typically making no effort to deal with Ocasio-Cortez’ arguments, conservative response on social media seems to rely on personal attacks like “@AOC is a puppet. No brains, all party” and “Where did she go to school ? I want to make sure, I don’t send my kids there !!!! They vote, I’m sure more people want to go back than not ! @aoc wins today’s Duntz Cap !!!” I assume that the writer meant “Dunce Cap.”  When you reduce your opponents to illiterate ad hominem arguments, you know that you’re making progress. 

Urgency indeed...

P.S. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez graduated with honors from my brother’s alma mater, Boston University, with a double major in economics and international relations. And, it is, in fact a prestigious, rigorous, church-related university. It reflects poorly on our nation that successful women need to face so much abuse in the political arena.

Query: Conservatives love to call Ocasio-Cortez, who obviously has one of the sharpest intellects in Congress, an idiot or a lunatic. And yet the Republican President of the United States just suggested  that we might cure the coronavirus by shining ultraviolet light inside people and injecting patients with chemical disinfectants. So who is the idiot or lunatic here?