New York Democratic House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing blowback on social media after she banned reporters from a public town hall event earlier this week.
The event, which took place Sunday in the Queens borough of New York City, was open to the public but not the media.
{mosads}Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesman, Corbin Trent, told the Queens Chronicle that the banning was “an outlier” and the campaign is “still adjusting our logistics to fit Alexandria’s national profile.”
A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign declined to comment further to The Hill, but Ocasio-Cortez tweeted later on Friday that her campaign’s decision to bar press from the event was a “non-story.”
“Additionally, with this town hall non-story: it was designed to protect + invite vulnerable populations to PUBLIC discourse: immigrants, victims of domestic abuse, and so on,” she tweeted. “We indicated previously that the event would be closed to press. Future ones are open.”
The news was first reported in the Chronicle on Thursday, a small newspaper adjacent to the district Ocasio-Cortez seeks to win this fall. After the story went viral on Friday, critics were quick to condemn the rising political star’s actions as she embarks on her “listening tour” throughout the 14th District.
Ocasio-Cortez, 28, a former volunteer for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, shocked the political establishment by upsetting 10-term congressman Joseph Crowley in June’s Democratic primary.
— Updated 5:19 p.m.