Ocasio-Cortez Sounds the Alarm on a Lobbyist Takeover of Congressional Orientation 一 She Was Wrong Again

Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) delivered yet another misleading tweet. This time, it was about her Congressional orientation for newly elected members of Congress.

In today’s edition of her totally wrong or misleading tweets, Ocasio-Cortez claimed the new members of Congress had to attend an indoctrination session filled with nefarious lobbyists as part of the orientation process:

Whoah – looks like our Congressional orientation had a lot more lobbyists than we thought.

This is not okay. Lobbyists are not impartial – they are employed to influence legislation.

60+ incoming members were listening to panelists without knowing which were hired lobbyists. https://t.co/hDHagMNAJE

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 7, 2018

Although Ocasio-Cortez was clearly horrified at the orientation, the reality is that neither she nor the other 60 plus Congressmembers-elect needed to go to this event. As Sarah D. Wire of the Los Angeles Times pointed out, Ocasio-Cortez chose to go to this event. It was not a required part of her orientation:

Really important to point out that this was a voluntary orientation put on by a private university that representatives chose to attend. It is not the orientation for new members put on by Congress. https://t.co/jRONU96TwU

— Sarah D. Wire (@sarahdwire) December 8, 2018

This is exactly why I chose not to attend this same orientation session when I came in as a new Member. I think I was in a tiny minority. It looked to me like it was alot of corporate brainwashing. Sorry, @Ocasio2018, I should have warned you. https://t.co/C5YnA3650J

— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) December 8, 2018

Even some of her fellow members of Congress noted they didn’t attend the event in previous years – READ MORE