Ocasio-Cortez misquotes Constitution, threatens to run for president

Ocasio-Cortez misquotes Constitution, threatens to run for president
The glasses don't help. (Image: YouTube screen grab)

Last September, a fairly adoring article in The Atlantic noted in passing that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “wears glasses when she’s not on TV.” The point was to emphasize how nerdy she is, but now that she has made herself the center of attention of many news cycles, she has begun wearing the glasses almost constantly, hoping perhaps to persuade her detractors that she is in fact a nerd, and not the dunderhead her words prove her to be.

She was at it again on Saturday, according to recap at Politico’s Playbook of an exchange between Ocasio-Cortez and a photographer at a Harvard photoshoot.

REP.-ELECT ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) joking about running for president. PHOTOG: “What are you, twenty…?” AOC: “29. I just turned 29.” PHOTOG: “Happy birthday.” AOC: “Thank you! Thank you!” PHOTOG: “You can’t even run for president for another six years.”

AOC: “No, not for a long time. Thank God. Although we’ve been joking that because the Equal Rights Amendment hasn’t been passed yet, the Constitution technically says he cannot run unless he’s 35. … So what we’ll do is we’ll force the Republican Party to pass the Equal Rights Amendment by threatening to run for president.”

PHOTOG: “That is awesome. All the people who say a literal interpretation of the Constitution is the only thing you should be paying attention to.” AOC: “Exactly, all those Constitutionalists, I will keep vigilance.”

There’s just one problem. The Constitution — a document Ocasio-Cortez clearly is unfamiliar with — does not say “he” cannot run: It says “any person.” The Equal Rights Amendment, should it pass, will have no bearing on the qualifications for running for president, which already include women.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Article II Section I of the Constitution, reads:

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States. (Emphasis added)

Up until recently, Ocasio-Cortez’s many flubs have made her the butt of jokes, but lately she has developed an unflattering edge that could land her in a pickle. On Friday, she threatened Donald Trump, Jr., who had mocked her in an Instagram meme, by reminding him that in a month she will be part of a branch of government endowed with the power of the subpoena. Some on the Right are no calling for a House Ethics investigation.

Remember, elections have consequences.

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Joe Newby

Joe Newby

Joe Newby is an IT professional. He has written for Conservative Firing Line, Examiner, NewsBusters, and Spokane Faith and Values.

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