Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "Lightning Round Corruption Game"

About

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Lightning Round Corruption Game refers to a viral video of United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioning witnesses during a hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Reform. During the hearing, Representative Ocasio-Cortez performs a role-playing exercise in which she plays a government official that would "enrich" themselves at the expense of the American people, showcasing perceived flaws in American government. The video has gone on to become the most viewed video of any politician on Twitter.

Origin

On February 6th, 2019, the Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on H.R. 1: Strengthening Ethics Rules for the Executive Branch, a proposed bill to fortify corruption rules on the president.^[1] At about two hours and 56 minutes into the hearing, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez begins a "lighting round" game with the witness, asking them whether examples of corruption and self-enrichment are legal for lobbyists, members of Congress and the president (shown below).

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The following day, the NowThis Twitter account tweeted,^[2] "‘We have a system that is fundamentally broken.’ -- Rep. @AOC is explaining just how f*cked campaign finance laws really are." The tweet received more than 49,000 retweets, 125,000 likes and 38.2 million views (shown below).

‘We have a system that is fundamentally broken.’ -- Rep. @AOC is explaining just how f*cked campaign finance laws really are pic.twitter.com/7rRXf9pD6Z

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 7, 2019

Many online praised the video. Twitter^[3] user @Ringham7 tweeted, "This is fabulous. @AOC just pulled back the curtain & revealed the extent to which 'bad guys' can use the system to get elected & influence laws to suit their own greed. What a breath of fresh air she is. The @GOP must be choking – and if they aren't they should be." The tweet received more than 75 retweets and 730 likes in one week (shown below, left).

Twitter^[4] user @BLUEFIR3 tweeted,^[4] "This was really cool and all but I think the best part of it is that this was easily understood by most Americans. We often get buried in political and legal jargon to the point we have no idea what is being said. She does a great job communicating to the masses." Within one week, the tweet received more than 125 retweets and 2,000 likes (shown below, right).

On February 11th, deputy editor of NowThis Jon Laurence tweeted,^[5] "This is now the most viewed video of any politician on Twitter, ever, as well as #41 in the most viewed Twitter videos of all time." Within three days, the video received more than 7,000 retweets and 38,000 likes (shown below).

The data for the video came from Tubular Labs, who confirmed the numbers.^[6] However, they did discount a viral video of President Donald Trump wrestling WWE CEO Vince McMahon with the CNN logo superimposed over McMahon's face. They said, "[It] depends on whether you consider Trump's 'Fake News Network' wrestling meme…a video of a politician or not. The video was shared directly from Trump's feed, but only depicts the back of his head and is more about 'beating up' CNN. So certainly not clear-cut." The Trump video has 39 million views compared to the Corruption Game's 38 million views.

Search Interest

External References