Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.) on Twitter after a photo surfaced, featuring a group of young men making rude gestures toward a life-size cutout of her.
The photo that went viral on Twitter on Monday shows a group of young men wearing matching “Team Mitch” T-shirts posing with a cutout of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez with the caption “break me a piece of that.”
One of the men in the photo can be seen with his arm around the cutout’s waist and pretending to kiss it on the cheek. Another individual can be seen with his hand hovering around the congresswoman’s neck. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted at McConnell asking if this was type of behavior was normal amongst his supporters.
“Hey @senatemajldr these young men look like they work for you. Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping & choking members of Congress w/ your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch? Thanks,” she said.
McConnell’s campaign responded, condoning the image and stated that the young men are high school students who have no official affiliation with the campaign.
“These young men are not campaign staff, they’re high schoolers and it’s incredible that the national media has sought to once again paint a target on their backs rather than report real, and significant news in our country,” said Kevin Golden, McConnell’s campaign manager, said in a statement to the Washington Post.
