Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) first speech from the House floor quickly became C-SPAN’s most-viewed Twitter video of remarks by a House lawmaker, drawing 1.16 million viewers in just over 12 hours.
C-SPAN’s communications director, Howard Mortman, shared the figure on his Twitter feed Thursday afternoon, one day after Ocasio-Cortez gave her first House floor speech.
“In just over 12 hours C-SPAN tweet of @RepAOC floor remarks last nite have become most-viewed twitter video by @cspan of any remarks by a member of House either party, 1.16 million” Mortman wrote.
Mortman added that the organization’s most viewed Twitter video of a senator was Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-Calif.) questioning last October of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious confirmation hearings. The Twitter video was viewed by 7.14 million people.
{mosads}In her roughly three-minute speech, Ocasio-Cortez declared that the ongoing partial government shutdown is not about the president’s demands for border wall funding but “the erosion of American democracy.”
“It is actually not about a wall, it is not about the border, and it is certainly not about the well-being of everyday Americans,” the first-year congresswoman said. “The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms.”
”It is not normal to hold 800,000 workers’ paychecks hostage. It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want,” she continued. “And it is certainly not normal to starve the people we serve for a proposal that is wildly unpopular among the American people.”
Her comments came on the 26th day of the shutdown.
Ocasio-Cortez has been a media sensation since her stunning primary upset of 10-term Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley in New York’s 14th Congressional District.
The progressive star, known for her social media savvy, has built her Twitter following to more than 2.44 million as of Thursday.