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‘Breakfast Club’ video smear against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backfires

In raising the profile of the video, the trolls have won Ocasio-Cortez more fans.

Photo of David Gilmour

David Gilmour

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'Breakfast Club' video

Right-wing trolls are sharing a college video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) dancing as part of a cheesy Breakfast Club parody in their latest and weirdest bid to smear the Democratic Socialist congresswoman they love to hate.

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The video appeared on Thursday, posted by an apparent QAnon conspiracy theorist and shared by dozens of conservatives accounts.

https://twitter.com/AnonymousQ1776/status/1080594276831047680

The original video, posted publicly to YouTube in 2010, features Boston University students recreating the dance scene from iconic 1985 movie The Breakfast Club.

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Almost immediately, there was backlash to the tweet for branding the video as proof that Ocasio-Cortez was a “clueless nitwit.” Confused Twitter users were unsure about what exactly the problem was.

https://twitter.com/SpankYouSilly/status/1080918173560594432

https://twitter.com/jokork9/status/1080916703943393281

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Many people loved it.

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https://twitter.com/idiolekt/status/1080916569121849344

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One user pointed out that the video had, in fact, been edited to swap out the original music, “Lisztomania” by Phoenix, for some “porny drums.”

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This latest attack on Ocasio-Cortez builds on the momentum of a long-running narrative, which re-emerged in recent days across fringe far-right media outlets after a Gateway Pundit “exclusive” hit piece.

Reminiscent of its smear job on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford in September, the website ran photos from Ocasio-Cortez’s high school yearbook on Wednesday in a bid to paint her as a member of the wealthy “elite.”

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Conservatives have become obsessed with Ocasio-Cortez’s outspoken Democratic Socialism, stories of her working class origins in the Bronx, and her having moved to wealthy New York suburb Yorktown Heights in her teens.

If it all seems a little desperate, that’s because it is. In fact, it looks like in raising the profile of the video, the trolls have won the New York congresswoman more fans.

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The Daily Dot