During last night’s Democratic debate, a number of ABC stations that are owned and operated by conservative media company Sinclair televised a 30-second commercial which depicted Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in flames.
The decision to accept and broadcast an ad seen by millions of Americans hasn’t gone over well with many on the left, including the representative herself.
GOP’s message: No policy, no facts, just displays of violence + corporations like @ABCNetwork & Sinclair who amplify them.
They profit from burning my likeness on TV. But who pays for heightened security? Who answers the phones for the threats resulting from a violent, false ad? https://t.co/Gr1XhEbwDC
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 13, 2019
The 30-second commercial was paid for by an organization called “New Faces GOP PAC,” and narrated by the Cambodian-American daughter of a survivor of the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. The narrator, a woman named Elizabeth Heng, appears to claim that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s Democratic Socialist values are similar to those held by radical Maoist militants who reportedly killed up to one quarter of Cambodia’s population in the late 1970s.