Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) mocked conservative activist Riley Gaines, a former college athlete, for finishing in fifth place in her last competitive collegiant swimming match.
The New York Democrat’s post came in response to Gaines accusing Ocasio-Cortez and her progressive allies of destroying the country, and it kicked off a pointed exchange between the outspoken political figures.
“We’re being destroyed from within,” Gaines wrote Sunday in a message, attaching a photograph of Ocasio-Cortez at a rally alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City.
Ocasio-Cortez responded: “Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth.”
Gaines tied for fifth place with former trans swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle race at the 2022 NCAA swimming championships. Thomas also won the 500-yard freestyle race, becoming the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport.
Gaines has used the swim meet to catapult her career as a political pundit and has become a vocal activist against allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sports — a position that has become increasingly mainstream in recent years.
Gaines fired back at Ocasio-Cortez, noting Thomas was ranked 462nd in the men’s division before she began taking hormone therapy and started competing on the women’s team.
“It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a ‘gotcha’ by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol,” Gaines wrote, adding, “Misogynistic dunce.”
Gaines went on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” to challenge the New York Democrat to a debate over the issue of trans women in sports.
“Any of the radical, insane Democratic policies and platform that they stand for, I will debate the opposite,” Gaines said in the interview. “I’m challenging AOC to it here.”
Responding to the clip, the congresswoman wrote, “And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job.”
Gaines called Ocasio-Cortez’s response “comical,” accusing the Democratic party of shutting down the government, which has “left you technically…jobless.”
“And I guess I’ll take that as a no (which is to be expected when your positions are indefensible on virtually every issue),” Gaines added.
A couple hours later, Gaines hit Ocasio-Cortez again over being a mother.
“I have a real job. I’m a mom. It’s the most important & rewarding job in the world. I think if you had a baby girl like I do, you’d understand my positions a little better,” Gaines wrote.