Says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared smoking marijuana and transgender women in the Olympics.
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No, AOC didn’t tweet this about smoking marijuana and the Olympics
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- 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.)
Featured Fact-check
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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