Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the media should deplatform President Donald Trump, expressing concern over a speech he is expected to deliver on election integrity.
With Trump set to give the high-profile speech on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez urged the press to censor the address, believing it will contain lies and be at odds with democratic values.
“I don’t think that we should be contributing to any platforming of lies about our election,” Ocasio-Cortez told journalist Pablo Manríquez on Tuesday when asked if she believes TV networks should air the speech. “Many news outlets oftentimes may receive transcripts, and I think that we have an ethical obligation to not air things that undermine our election that are not rooted in evidence and fact.”
“Of course, it depends on the contents of his speech, but that’s what I think,” she added.
Trump is set to address the nation from the Oval Office on Thursday at 9 p.m. The president said earlier this week that he would speak about elections, among other things, and hinted at a “very big announcement.”
The development comes as the president has fought this year to pass key election-integrity legislation through the SAVE America Act that would require voters to show photo ID when they turn in ballots.
Concerns about election integrity have been a running theme for years with Trump, who claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favor of the winner, Joe Biden. Trump’s position has fueled outrage from Democrats such as Ocasio-Cortez, a possible 2028 presidential contender who has posited him as the antithesis of democracy. A federal investigation into concerns about the 2020 election is ongoing, with the FBI raiding offices in Georgia over the matter in late January. The agency executed a search warrant at the Fulton County election facility, seizing ballots and election records tied to the race in a move later upheld in court.
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Officials have downplayed rumors that Trump’s Thursday speech will declare the 2020 election in Georgia illegitimate. Officials previously told the Washington Examiner that internal discussions about the speech had centered on election security and possible voting-machine vulnerabilities susceptible to foreign cyber intrusions. They said the speech could also increase pressure on the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act.
“It doesn’t get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country,” Trump said this week in the Oval Office. “We’ll be discussing other things too, but it’s going to be a very big announcement.”
