New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on an unbridled rant against President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday, claiming the country is on the “eve of dictatorship.”
The left-handed congressman who represents parts of Queens and the Bronx slams TikTok, which he credits to Trump for the social media platform's resurgence after it briefly went offline in the U.S. over the weekend. He made the remarks in a series of Instagram videos.
“We are on the eve of a dictatorship,” he said the day before Trump's inauguration. “This is becoming what 21st century fascism will look like.”
Ocasio-Cortez questioned why TikTok was praising Trump when he is still a “civilian” and not president.
“They have indicated that they are collaborating informally, and they have agreed to collaborate informally with Donald Trump and the Trump administration,” she said, adding that TikTok is being used as a “propaganda tool for the right.” He added that he believed that
TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance has until Jan. 19 after Congress overwhelmingly approved the measure in April and later signed it by President Biden, citing national security concerns. They were given the option to either sell the platform's U.S. operations or be banned from the country.
President Trump has said he intends to work with TikTok to keep it online.
Ocasio-Cortez, who voted against the TikTok bill, said all mass social media apps, including X, owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk, and Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, have been “taken over by the right.” “It is true,” he claimed.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg stopped fact-checking on his platform this month, Ocasio-Cortez said, citing Meta's support for the Republican Party.
Zuckerberg also met with Trump in Florida and donated $1 million to the president-elect's inaugural fund.
The “squad” member, who is starting his fourth term, then claimed that the party wanted to model itself on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in power for more than a decade.
“So if you look at how Viktor Orbán is running Hungary, you can see how they are going to govern and control the media and companies in the United States,” she said. insisted.
Prime Minister Orbán has been criticized for dismantling his country's democratic institutions while suppressing judicial independence and critical media outlets.
Ocasio-Cortez also settled a lawsuit with the president-elect after ABC News falsely said during a live broadcast in 2024 that Trump was “found responsible for rape.” A month later, on Sunday, he called Trump a “rapist.”
“All these journalists are like, 'Congressman, are you going to the inauguration? Congressman, are you going to the inauguration? Are you going to the inauguration?'” she said in another Instagram video.
“Let me be clear: I will not be celebrating rapists, so I will not be going to the inauguration.”
She then doubled down on her inflammatory statements about X after right-wing accounts blew up the video.
“Oh, it's activated? Please cry more,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos made an inaccurate claim on air that President Trump had been found civilly liable for raping author E. Jean Carroll, resulting in the station's legal filing. As part of the settlement, President Trump's library will be paid $15 million.
Last year, ABC reported that Stephanopoulos interviewed South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace about the unfairness of the judgments in two civil cases against Carroll, the 45th president and soon-to-be 47th president. Days after the segment aired, he filed a lawsuit against ABC and the journalist.
The anchor said in a live “This Week” interview that President Trump was “found liable for rape and for defaming the rape victim,” but both verdicts include rape under New York state law. certification was not included.
In 2023, a New York court found Trump liable for sexual abuse after he allegedly abused Carole in a department store in 1996 and later defamed her with a statement denying the allegations. did.
President Trump denies wrongdoing and is appealing the verdict.
