Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Track ‘sycophants,’ AOC says
Critics say tactics same as those used by dictatorships
NEW YORK — Newly re-elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has asked if anyone is keeping a record of “Trump sycophants” who were “complicit” in his administration, predicting that those who were would seek to cover their tracks after President Donald Trump leaves office.
“Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Friday.
“I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future,” the lawmaker wrote.
The New York representative’s tweets received backlash from conservatives, with some comparing her suggestion to the actions of previous authoritarian socialist and communist regimes, and others suggesting that it would be great advertising for Republican campaigns in the future.
“Joseph is proud of you!” one user wrote, referring to Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin.
Ocasio-Cortez followed-up her comments with another tweet that ridiculed Republicans for portraying themselves as the “party of personal responsibility,” yet getting upset at the idea of having to acknowledge their role in bolstering the Trump administration.
“Lol at the ‘party of personal responsibility’ being upset at the idea of being responsible for their behavior over the last four years,” she tweeted.
Among those who replied to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet was Michael Simon, a former Obama administration official, who cited the Trump Accountability Project.
“Yes, we are,” Simon wrote. “Every Administration staffer, campaign staffer, bundler, lawyer who represented them — everyone.”
Simon’s reply to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet has since been deleted.
The Trump Accountability Project’s landing page states: “The world should never forget those who, when faced with a decision, chose to put their money, their time, and their reputations behind separating children from their families, encouraging racism and anti-Semitism, and negligently causing the unnecessary loss of life and economic devastation from our country’s failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The list of names was initially published on the project’s website asking people to “remember what they did” and is now privatized but was captured by internet archives.
It shows an extensive Google Sheets document listing off people who the project deems necessary to curb from “profiting from their experience” working with the Trump administration.
Tabs on the document separate those listed into categories such as “Campaign Staff,” “Administration,” “Appointees,” “Donors,” “Law Firms,” “Endorsers” and “Denouncers.”
The “Administration” tab contained names of senior advisers in the White House all the way down to the “Chief Calligrapher.” Under “Denouncers,” the project listed Miles Taylor, the low-level anonymous source published and promoted by the New York Times as a “senior administration official.”