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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke July 9, 2021

No, AOC didn’t tweet this about smoking marijuana and the Olympics

If Your Time is short

  • This tweet appears to be doctored. 
     
  • We didn’t find it searching Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter accounts or a database that includes her deleted tweets.
 

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent target of doctored tweets that use the New York Democrat’s Twitter handle and image and attribute statements to her that she never actually said. 

The latest example is a viral screenshot of what looks like a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez that alludes to Sha’Carri Richardson, the American sprinter suspended from the U.S. Olympic team after testing positive for marijuana, and weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender competitor in the games

"So, just to get this straight, if you smoke pot you can be disqualified from the Olympics but if you are a biological man who takes a year of estrogen you can compete against the ladies in weightlifting," reads the text of the fake tweet.

An Instagram post sharing the image was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

We searched Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter accounts @AOC and @RepAOC for the words in the tweet that appeared on Instagram but found no results. 

We also didn’t find it in Politwoops, a ProPublica database that includes deleted tweets from the representative. 

On July 2, Ocasio-Cortez did tweet about trying to end Richardson’s suspension. But she didn’t tweet the statement that appears in the Instagram post. A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez told the Associated Press "the post is false."

We rate it the same: False.

 

Our Sources

Instagram post, July 6, 2021

PolitiFact, False post about Sha’Carri Richardson’s replacement at Olympics came from joke account, July 6, 2021

NPR, New Zealand weightlifter will be the first openly trans competitor at the Olympics, June 21, 2021

@AOC Twitter account, visited July 9, 2021

@RepAOC Twitter account, visited July 9, 2021

@RepAOC tweet, July 2, 2021

Politwoops, deleted tweets from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, visited July 9, 2021

The Associated Press, Tweet attributed to AOC about Olympic athletes is fake, July 6, 2021

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No, AOC didn’t tweet this about smoking marijuana and the Olympics

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