Party conventions are, first and foremost, about the presidential and vice presidential nominees, but that doesn’t mean others don’t occasionally steal the show.
Back in 2004, Barack Obama was a little-known Illinois state senator when he was tapped to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Contention. The memorable speech launched him into the national political conversation and he rode that exposure all the way to the White House in 2008.
Ever since, countless politicians have tried – and mostly failed – to capture the same lightning in a bottle. The latest casualty? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whose remarks on Monday night had Megyn branding the Squad member “Hilaria Mussolini.”
AOC’s Speech
After being relegated to a 90-second introduction of Sen. Bernie Sanders at the 2020 DNC, AOC was given a prime speaking slot at this year’s convention. She took to the stage Monday night to deliver a fiery speech in which she advocated for Kamala Harris, slammed former President Donald Trump, and criticized Republicans for their criticism of her time in Congress.
“Ever since I got elected, Republicans have attacked me by saying I should go back to bartending,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But let me tell you, I’m happy to, any day of the week, because there is nothing wrong with working for a living. Imagine having leaders in the White House who understand that, leaders like Kamala and Tim [Walz].”
The progressive legislator claimed Harris is someone who “understands the urgency of rent checks and groceries and prescriptions” and “who is for the middle class because she is from the middle class.”
In a crowd-pleasing moment, she branded Trump a “two-bit union buster” who considers himself “more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed trampling on our way of life.”
‘Hilaria Mussolini’
While the congresswoman’s remarks were well-received by those gathered in Chicago and on social media, Megyn said her loud, rapturous delivery was misinterpreted. “When I saw people on the internet – even Republicans – praising her last night… I thought, ‘Have you never actually seen an effective female public speaker,'” she asked. “People mistake energy and enthusiasm for effectiveness. Anybody can get up there and shout at you. It doesn’t make you a good public speaker.”
Instead, Megyn said AOC’s speech felt like “an assault” in which she was trying to imitate Obama’s star turn two decades ago. “That is what AOC was going for. That is what they all go for. And they fail,” she noted. “There is only one Barack Obama… I’m sorry, find your own style. You are not good at imitation.”
So while young Obama may have been the goal, Megyn said Ocasio-Cortez actually came off as a mashup of an accented Hillary “Hilaria” Baldwin, who was busted for not actually being a native Spanish speaker despite long-pretending to be, and a shouting Benito Mussolini. “She was a cross between Hilaria, who went to a fancy boarding school in Boston and isn’t Spanish at all, and also this guy who you may remember from World War II as the leader of Italy,” she quipped.
“AOC is Sandy from Westchester and now she is suddenly Latino speaking from the Bronx,” Megyn conceded. “She is so fake.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 865 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.