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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was accused of putting on an accent during a Memphis rally last week, with critics on social media comparing her to former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ocasio-Cortez was speaking at a campaign rally in Memphis on Friday for progressive U.S. House candidate Justin Pearson, who currently serves as a Tennessee state representative.
“We cannot afford to leave Tennessee behind,” she said. “We cannot afford to leave Kentucky behind, Alabama behind, Mississippi behind, Georgia behind, South Carolina behind. There is no country where we are split apart.”
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“About a month or two ago, we were in Montgomery, Alabama — Sister [Rep. Ayanna] Pressley and I were in Montgomery, Alabama, and one of the things that we said was that it is time for the North to roll up to the South,” Ocasio-Cortez continued.
Critics online singled out this part of her speech, saying she put on a “fake accent.”
“AOC, from the ‘Bronx’ sounding like a southern Baptist preacher while in Memphis,” actor Michael Rapaport, who has said he’ll run for the New York City mayor’s office in 2029, posted on social media.
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“Hillary Clinton developed an accent. Kamala Harris developed an accent. AOC is developing an accent. It’s all patronizing,” conservative communications strategist Steve Guest posted on social media.
“Rep. AOC just got busted putting on a FAKE ACCENT for a predominantly black audience. She’s seriously going full Kamala for 2028,” another user wrote, referencing a potential presidential bid.
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Harris was repeatedly accused of altering her accent depending on the group of people she’s speaking to.
In 2024, Harris was slammed for using what critics called a fake Southern accent while speaking at a rally in Atlanta in July 2024, and again during a Labor Day rally in Detroit that year. During her 2021 overseas trip to France, critics claimed Harris used a “French accent” while touring a COVID lab.