Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is once again in headlines, this time for seemingly switching her accent while delivering a speech at a campaign rally in Memphis, Tennessee. This isn’t the first time AOC has been accused of switching up the way she talks to match the audience she’s addressing. The New York Democrat was speaking at an event for Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson, who is currently running for a congressional seat.
The “code switching” the controversial congresswoman engaged in during the speech drew comparisons to former Vice President Kamala Harris, who has also been criticized for the same tactic when public speaking. “We cannot afford to leave Tennessee behind. We cannot afford to leave Kentucky behind, Alabama behind, Mississippi behind, Georgia behind, South Carolina behind. There is no country where we are split apart. About a month or two ago, we’re in Montgomery, Alabama,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“Sister Presley and I were in Montgomery, Alabama, and one of the things that we said was that it is time for the North to roll up to the South. We will not be chased out of places anymore, brothers and sisters. It is going to take all of us together, rejecting the separation, for us to organize and speak life into one another,” she continued.
“Because we will, we will see the day where we will turn the crooked path straight, Memphis,” Ocasio-Cortez added. Critics were quick to slam AOC for being a girl from the Bronx suddenly attempting to sound like a “Southern Baptist preacher” during the speech, according to a report from Fox News. They then accused her of putting on a “fake accent.”
“AOC, from the ‘Bronx’ sounding like a southern Baptist preacher while in Memphis,” actor and podcast host Michael Rapaport, who has stated that he intends to run for mayor of New York City in 2029, said about the clip of Ocasio-Cortez on social media.
“Hillary Clinton developed an accent. Kamala Harris developed an accent. AOC is developing an accent. It’s all patronizing,” Steve Guest, a conservative communications strategist, said in his reply. “Rep. AOC just got busted putting on a FAKE ACCENT for a predominantly black audience. She’s seriously going full Kamala for 2028,” another individual commented.
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During her time as vice president in the Biden administration, Harris was repeatedly accused of changing her accent depending on the audience she was speaking to. Critics ripped her apart in 2024 for using a fake Southern accent while speaking at a rally in Atlanta. She was slammed again for the same practice during a rally held on Labor Day in Detroit, Michigan.
When Harris made a trip to tour a COVID lab in France back in 2021, critics said she used a “French accent.” One commenter on X asked an important question that everyone should be thinking about. “Why is the NY’er in Tennessee and Kentucky? Wtf does that have to do with NY politics?” the user, Jim Shields, wrote. “Just like Hillary Clinton. Democrats are so fake!” another stated.
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