(USA Features) A conservative government watchdog group is pressing the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she apparently accepted free tickets priced at $35,000 each so she and her boyfriend could attend Monday’s Met Gala.
While attending the event, the self-described democratic socialist also turned heads and raised eyebrows wearing a white dress adorned with “Tax the Rich” in red letters.
“In an ethics complaint, Thomas Jones, founder of the American Accountability Foundation, said he believes Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, broke House rules by accepting ‘an impermissible gift’ of free tickets to attend the annual gala,” the Daily Mail reported.
“[W]hile the individual’s invitations may bear the name of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum has ceded control over the invitations to a for-profit company, specifically Condé Nast, and to its Chief Content Officer, Anna Wintour,” Jones wrote.
He added that “the New York Times outlines that the Met does not have control over who is invited to the event, but rather the for-profit company, is in control of who gets invited.”
“AOC,” as she is known, dismissed criticism of her attending the event while appearing to convey a competing, even hypocritical, political message on her dress.
“The Met Gala is seen as elite and inaccessible…As a working class woman, [I] wanted to enjoy the event but also break the fourth wall and challenge the industry,” she said, though at $174,000 a year in congressional salary, she earns well above the $68,000 the average U.S. household earned in 2019, according to the Census Bureau.
Also, she claims to be “100% grass roots from the Bronx” but grew up in a wealthy New York City suburb and attended an upper class college, Boston University.
“And yes, BEFORE anybody starts wilding out – NYC elected officials are regularly invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing our city’s cultural institutions that serve the public,” she wrote on Instagram. “I was one of several in attendance. Dress is borrowed via Brother Vellies.”