Ocasio-Cortez knocks 'red carpet' rolled out for Trump's arraignment
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized the “red carpet” that was rolled out for former President Trump as he faced criminal charges in Manhattan earlier this month, saying people get treated “far worse for doing far less.”
“I have to go in every single day, watching people get treated far worse for doing far less,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with “The Daily Show” that aired Monday, speaking about how Rikers Island is in her district. “And then it’s like this red carpet that gets rolled out.”
Trump’s arraignment in Manhattan earlier this month was covered by a swarm of media, with crowds of law enforcement protection and gathered demonstrators.
Trump, who was charged with 34 felony counts related to the falsification of business records, was not required to take a mugshot or wear handcuffs. He also entered the courthouse through a side entrance.
The New York congresswoman praised people in the city for how they greeted the former president, saying they treated him like “a Florida man.”
“I think they treated him like a Florida man,” Ocasio-Cortez joked. “He don’t belong to us no more. He’s not from Queens anymore."
"He’s a citizen of Mar-a-Lago at this point," she quipped.
Trump claimed in the aftermath of his indictment that people in the courthouse were crying as he went through the arrest and arraignment process.
“When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison in a sense, they signed me in and I'll tell you people were crying,” Trump said in an interview with news host Tucker Carlson earlier this month.
But Ocasio-Cortez said that while maybe some like Reps. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) were crying, she was not.
“Not me,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Kick it back to LaGuardia, baby.”