Conservatives are certain they’ve unearthed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) burner account. The evidence is hardly overwhelming, but they’re nevertheless convinced.
Burner accounts are typically used to either lurk or troll from behind a pseudonym. It’s fairly common practice among public figures; Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) famously admitted to using a burner account known as Pierre Delecto in 2019.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The saga began when an account, @zazasmoka, replied to a tweet from @realnikohouse trolling Ocasio-Cortez.
“But you vote to send money to Nazis and to fund the Israeli apartheid. But hey, at least you stood up to a TikTok star,” @realnikohouse wrote of Ocasio-Cortez telling Chaya Raichik she was “super transphobic” and saying she “never [wants] to share space with” her.
(The Nazi reference appears to refer to Ukraine, as conservatives often accuse the country of Nazism.)
“Lol and what makes you think that I did anything to support Nazis,” @zazasmoka replied. “You’re delusional. Seek help.”
This was all it took to convince @realnikohouse that @zazasmoka was Ocasio-Cortez’s burner account.
“YOOOOO!!! AOC has burned accounts. I responded to one of her posts reminding her that she sends money to Nazis, and some random account responded to me speaking in first person as if I attacked them,” he tweeted. “Then that same person DELETED the tweets.”
He took the account subsequently deleting the tweet and blocking him as further proof that it belonged to Ocasio-Cortez.
Other users flagged some other tweets from the account that referenced Ocasio-Cortez as well.
However, @realnikohouse’s initial tweet tagged both @zazasmoka and Ocasio-Cortez, indicating he was probably replying to @zazasmoka’s retweet of Ocasio-Cortez. Thus it would make sense for @zazasmoka to reply in the first person.
But it was off to the races for online conservatives.
They’re convinced that the congresswoman who is known for publicly owning critics from her verified account had a burner where she liked pornographic photos of women and suggested she hoped transphobe Matt Walsh would get killed by a transgender person.
“That account is definitely her,” wrote one.
“What did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mean by this?” Ian Miles Cheong tweeted along with screenshots of @zazasmoka suggesting they hope Walsh gets killed.
As Ocasio-Cortez’s critics continued accusing her of having a burner account whose screen name was “zaza demon,” others pointed back to the hole in their logic: @realnikohouse’s tweet tagged both the congresswoman and @zazasmoka.
“So, what actually happened was this bozo replied to an account that retweeted AOC and didn’t untag that account before he did it,” @RayyvanaTTV tweeted.
“Bro you tagged Zaza yourself before they responded to you. You manufactured this whole thing smh,” wrote another.
@realnikohouse was undeterred by this argument.
When one person pointed out that he’d replied to both accounts and commented, “How embarrassing for you,” he claimed it was “equally likely” that the congresswoman “didn’t realize which account she’d received the notification through before she responded to me.”
Before deleting their account, @zazasmoka addressed the rumor that they were Ocasio-Cortez’s burner.
“Wow the schizophrenic Twitter guy cracked the code,” they wrote sarcastically. “Yes, I’m AOC or whatever ooooo I’m in your walls.”
There’s no evidence that @realnikohouse is schizophrenic.
