AOC falsely claims to donate merchandise profits to charity

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Thursday made false claims about how she spends revenue from her expensive merchandise, saying she uses the “proceeds” for charity. 

AOC made the claim during a spat with new Twitter owner Elon Musk, who last week announced that verified Twitter accounts such as AOC’s will need to start paying $8 per month to keep their blue checkmarks. 

“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” tweeted AOC Wednesday, referring to Musk’s self-proclaimed commitment to free speech. 

“Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8,” responded the world’s richest man, who then tweeted a screenshot of a promotional sweatshirt sold by AOC for $58 with a “wondering” emoji. The tweet garnered nearly 450,000 likes. 

AOC fired back, claiming she spends the “proceeds” from her merchandising revenue for “community acts”. 

“My workers are union, have full healthcare + benefits like childcare help, and every one is paid a living wage. Proceeds go to community acts like tutoring underserved kids. You’re a union buster with an ego problem who pockets the change from underpaying and mistreating people.” 

But as pointed out by Libs of TikTok, AOC’s merchandise website plainly notifies customers prior to checkout that “Purchases are campaign contributions.” 

As for AOC’s campaign, records show little philanthropic disbursements. AOC last donated to “underserved kids” in May, when she spent over $12,000 for a program she created in 2020 called “Homework Helpers”. The initiative, which claims to be a volunteer program "to help address the inequities in the educational system,” earned AOC a couple of promotional articles. 

But the website does not appear to have been updated since 2020. 

“With the new school closures, Team AOC has set a goal of serving 1,000 students for the 2020-2021 school year,” says the site. 

More recently, AOC’s campaign spent nearly $2,000 in August on Mets tickets. 

The self-described socialist also tried to claim Thursday that Musk was censoring her Twitter account, complaining in a video that she had opened her account and saw “a blank screen” without "mentions and stuff.” AOC was mocked soundly online for experiencing a relatively common issue tied to poor network service.