Burning AOC ad during Democratic debate sparks outrage
An advertisement showing the image of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bursting into flames aired during ABC's Democratic debate in Houston on Thursday, prompting a heated response from viewers.
The 30-second ad, from a Republican-affiliated PAC named New Faces GOP, features its founder Elizabeth Heng, a former GOP congressional candidate in California, warning about liberal politicians who embrace socialism.
"This is the face of socialism and ignorance," Heng says as a photo of Ocasio-Cortez catches fire and burns away to show harrowing images from the Cambodian Civil War in the 1970s from which her father fled.
"Does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez know the horrors of socialism?” Heng continues. “My father was minutes from death in Cambodia before a forced marriage saved his life. That’s socialism: Forced obedience. Starvation. Mine is a face of freedom. My skin is not white. I’m not outrageous, racist, nor socialist. I’m a Republican."
Ocaso-Cortez took to Twitter to react to the ad.
"Republicans are running TV ads setting pictures of me on fire to convince people they aren’t racist. Life is weird!" Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "Know that this wasn’t an ad for young conservatives of color - that was the pretense. What you just watched was a love letter to the GOP’s white supremacist case."
This is like some kind of alternate reality.