A showdown ensued at the Capitol late last week as Chaya Raichik, the creator of Libs of TikTok, went in to file a full ethics complaint against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and the pair ended up bumping heads.
Raichik expressed in a series of posts to social media that she had first gone into the Capitol proper last week with the intent of speaking with Ocasio-Cortez directly -- but when that plan quickly fell through, she went back in an effort to file an official complaint with assistance from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. After handing over a copy of the complaint personally, she just so happened to run headfirst into the congresswoman herself.
WATCH:
🚨BREAKING: We served @AOC with an ethics complaint for breaking House rules by intentionally defaming @libsoftiktok.
She...did not take it well.
This is the nasty rhetoric of the radical, violent transgender movement. pic.twitter.com/ZNEo1J3jcP
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) March 30, 2023
Last week I attempted to talk with AOC about using her position of power to lie about an American citizen. She refused to meet so I was forced to go to the next step and file an ethics complaint. Stop cowering @AOC! https://t.co/3lvwqL7JqU
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 30, 2023
When Raichik managed to run into her in the hallway, she explained that she had "just delivered an ethics complaint to your office because you lied about me in a committee hearing."
"Uh-huh. Oh hi! Yeah no, I actually didn’t," fired back AOC.
"I never inspired a bomb threat," stated Raichik.
"You’re actually super transphobic and I never want to share a space with you!" AOC went on, before quickly turning on her heel and walking away. "Thank you!"
Raichik stated that she had at first attempted to meet AOC last week to confront her in person, making allegations that the New York congresswoman had openly lied about her while speaking at a congressional hearing -- when she made the claim that Raichik's stance against gender transition procedures for kids had resulted in a high level of threats and harassment against medical professionals.
As part of a February hearing, Ocasio-Cortez made the claim that Raichik had posted a lie that her followers circulated, which Ocasio-Cortez claimed that she had then inspired "real life harassment and ultimately a bomb threat" to Boston Children's Hospital.
When Raichik showed up at Ocasio-Cortez’s office to speak to her, she was deflected by a staffer who explained that the congresswoman was not in. She left a post-it note on the door telling her not to "lie about American citizens."
"I absolutely had no expectations for her to own up to it. I went to her office, and I was ready to sit down with her and get to the bottom of this and explain it. And I don’t know if she was in the office or not, but I know she cowered away," she explained to Tucker Carlson, a host for Fox News. "I don’t think she would ever face me or ever have a discussion about it. But I as an American citizen — I don’t appreciate being defamed in front of millions of people. So I wanted to confront her, and she cowered."