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Politics

12th Feb 2019

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘corruption game’ speech is now the most viewed video of a politician on Twitter, ever

AOC has arrived

Oli Dugmore

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 05: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) greets fellow lawmakers ahead of the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives on February 5, 2019 in Washington, DC. President Trump's second State of the Union address was postponed one week due to the partial government shutdown. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

AOC has arrived

A speech by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become the most viewed video of a politician on Twitter, ever.

The ‘corruption game’ speech, as it has now become known, by the New York representative called for reform to campaign finance in American politics.

Delivered to a House Oversight Committee hearing, the address has broken Twitter history.

According to NowThis News Deputy Editor Jon Laurence, the publisher’s video has become the 41st most viewed Twitter video of all time.

It’s received 118,400 likes and 46,450 retweets on the social media platform.

Ocasio-Cortez said: “We have a system that is fundamentally broken. We have these influences existing in this body, which means that these influences are here, in this committee, shaping the questions that are being asked of you all right now. Would you say that that’s correct?”

Walter Michael Shaub Jr., an American attorney specialising in government ethics, replied “Yes.”

Ocasio-Cortez then asked Shaub if the rules that apply to members of Congress also apply to the president.

He said: “In terms of laws that apply to the president, yeah, there’s almost no laws at all that apply to the president.”

Ocasio-Cortez: “So, I’m being held, and every person in this body is being held, to a higher ethical standard than the president of the United States?”

Shaub: “That’s right, because there are some committee, ethics committee rules that apply to you.”

Ocasio-Cortez: “And it’s already super legal, as we’ve seen, for me to be a pretty bad guy. So, it’s even easier for the president of the United States to be one, I would assume.”