Ocasio-Cortez: Trump rallying in Bronx due to 'legal version of an ankle bracelet'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said former President Trump is rallying in the Bronx this week due to a “legal version of an ankle bracelet.”
Ocasio-Cortez slammed Trump on Tuesday for his planned Thursday event in the Bronx, the borough where the New York Democrat was born and now partially represents in Congress. Trump has been in New York for more than a month for his hush money trial, which has been going on for about six weeks.
“Donald Trump is broke. He needs money. He's hosting a rally to try to con people and try to fleece them out of every dollar that they have to fund his own legal fees,” she told reporters.
“And by the way, he's doing it in the South Bronx, not to make a point, but because he's got court and the man practically has the legal version of an ankle bracelet around him, and he can't leave the five boroughs because he always has to be in court. And so it is truly an embarrassment to him.”
Trump announced last week that he would be holding a campaign rally in the South Bronx on Thursday evening.
The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to a reimbursement made to Trump’s ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, for a payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to all counts.
He is required to be present in the courtroom for the trial. Court has typically met Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of most weeks of the trial, limiting the former president from his trips on the campaign trail. Trump is not bound by court-imposed rules that he remain in New York City.
He has frequently railed against not being able to campaign while stuck in a Manhattan courtroom, forcing him to have campaign events on days off from court. Many Republican lawmakers and allies of the former president have flocked to New York to show their support for Trump during the trial as well, echoing his typical attacks against the case, the judge and the Manhattan district attorney.
New York City is where Trump grew up and eventually went on to build his business brand and fame, but the former president has since taken aim at the city over its Democratic leadership and hush money criminal case brought against him.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, said Ocasio-Cortez should "have learned her lesson after getting wrecked at the House Oversight Committee hearing, but she never says anything remotely intelligent.”
Last week, Ocasio-Cortez was among the lawmakers who clashed during an Oversight Committee hearing after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) of wearing "false eyelashes."
Mychael Schnell and Filip Timotija contributed.