NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo fell for an obvious deepfake video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday, delivered only a half-hearted apology for attacking her over it — and then demanded she do better.
The fake footage appeared to show Ocasio-Cortez on the floor of the U.S. House condemning American Eagle for its new jeans campaign, in which actor Sydney Sweeney notes genes determine a person’s hair color and personality before stating, “My jeans are blue.”
Some critics believe the ad promotes white supremacy (and many Republicans are now lauding it in response). Cuomo was convinced that Ocasio-Cortez actually spoke about masturbation, “slave daddy oppressors” and Sweeney’s breasts in the House chamber, as the fabricated video suggests.
“Nothing about hamas or people burning jews cars…but sweeney jeans ad?” Cuomo wrote in a since-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter. “Deserved time on floor of congress? What happened to this party? Fight for small business…not for small culture wars.”
Ocasio-Cortez was quick to debunk the obviously fake footage.
