Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spars with Washington Post reporter over barring press from public event

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stunned the nation when she defeated longtime Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) in a Democratic primary back in June. In vanquishing Crowley, who held the fourth-highest position in Democratic House leadership, Ocasio-Cortez showed the appeal a political newcomer can have in a party increasingly fed up with its old ways.

But Washington Post reporter Seung Min Kim exposed the potential pitfalls of Ocasio-Cortez's greenness in a tweet Friday, calling out the probable congresswoman for holding a public event that was closed to the press. Kim tweeted out a story from the Queens Chronicle, a local paper in the district Ocasio-Cortez is hoping to represent this fall, that noted, "Unless you were in the room Sunday, you won't know what specific community problems were mentioned. ... That's because her campaign banned members of the media from attending the event, which was otherwise open to the public."

Kim noted that Ocasio-Cortez would be "in for a rough time on Capitol Hill" if her preference is to avoid reporters. When Ocasio-Cortez's campaign said it "wanted to help create a space where community members felt comfortable," the reporter noted that the campaign could've just made the event entirely private to ensure that.

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Ocasio-Cortez herself eventually responded to Kim's tweets, writing that because the community is "50 percent immigrant" and includes "victims of [domestic violence], trafficking, and ... personal medical issues," the event was "designed for residents to feel safe discussing sensitive issues in a threatening political time." She also noted that her campaign had told press in advance that they were not welcome at the event. Kim responded: "You cannot ban members of the press from events that are otherwise open to the public. ... Period."

Ocasio-Cortez is virtually guaranteed to prevail in the general election in New York's heavily Democratic 14th District. Read the original Queens Chronicle article here.