Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose assertive leveraging of social media has helped propel her to outsized notoriety for a congressional newcomer, appears to have made online history with a morality lesson about the campaign finance system's consequences.
A five-minute clip of the New York Democrat's pungent tongue-in-cheek questioning of witnesses at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing last week may have become the most viewed video of any politician in Twitter history. The video posted by NowThis broke the mark on Monday, the news site's deputy editor Jon Laurence says. As of this afternoon it had 38 million views, 125,000 likes and nearly 49,000 retweets, making it one of the 40 most viewed Twitter videos of all time.
At a hearing on HR 1, the Democrats' catch-all political process overhaul, Ocasio-Cortez used her time to conduct what she called a "lightning round game" with the ethics experts who were testifying. She aimed to demonstrate the ease with which a corrupt House member, senator or president could skirt accountability under current government ethics law, overtly do the quid-pro-quo bidding of campaign donors and profit from insider knowledge.
"It's already super legal, as we've seen, for me to be a pretty bad guy," she concluded.
Mary Peltola poses for a portrait in her office on February 9, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images)
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland hugs and greets supporters following her speech during a primary election night watch party after winning the Democratic nomination, on June 2, 2026, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (JON AUSTRIA/AP)
