Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) attempt to praise one of her fellow “Squad” members who lost his primary race is probably not going the way she expected.
On Wednesday, the progressive star sought to praise Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), writing on X, “[Bowman] Son of a single mother. Grew up in public housing. Dedicated his life to teaching. Became a school principal.”
“Founded a prized school to serve Bronx youth. Elected as the 1st Black Congressman for NY16. Never took a dime in corporate money. A true public servant,” she added.
The tweet comes after Bowman, who criticized Israel and called for a ceasefire shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas and falsely pulled a fire alarm to disrupt a vote to keep the government open, lost his primary.
However, Ocasio-Cortez’s post was quickly mocked as users found several issues with it.
The first issue pointed out was that the congresswoman tagged the wrong “Jamaal Bowman” account. Rather than a lawmaker from New York, she tagged an account apparently owned by someone living Germany, who has not posted since 2012, and does have a profile picture.
Additionally, community notes pointed out Bowman is not first Black congressman elected to represent the district. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was the first Black representative from the district, serving from 1953 to 1963. And Charles Rangel was elected as that district’s representative and held the seat from 1983 to 1993.
As the issues came to like, Ocasio-Cortez was widely mocked:
Knows him so well, she tagged the wrong Jamaal.
— Ian Haworth (@ighaworth) June 26, 2024https://t.co/e59RzwtSvP
Nearly 24 hours later, the tweet was still up — without any correction.
