AOC theory for criticism of her Miami Beach jaunt: 'Republicans are mad they can’t date me'

The tiffs between New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her critics became ribald Friday after she was spotted vacationing in Florida, a state whose COVID-19 policies she has long denounced as too lenient.

National Review published a tipster's photos Thursday night of AOC dining in Miami Beach as New York City, parts of which she represents in Congress, "reported a record number of new, confirmed cases of Covid-19 (almost 44,000)."

She had faulted GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in February for similarly fleeing Texas for Cancun during the state's winter storm crisis, and brought up the incident two months later.

The leftist "Squad" congresswoman, whose mother lives in Florida, apparently didn't respond to criticism of the perceived hypocrisy until the reelection campaign for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asked if she was "enjoying a taste of freedom here." 

"Hasn’t Gov. DeSantis been inexplicably missing for like 2 weeks?" she tweeted. But it was a tweet by Steve Cortes, a former President Trump adviser who recently left Newsmax, that provoked AOC to play psychiatrist.

After Cortes mocked her partner's "gross pale male feet" visible in the photo, AOC responded: "If Republicans are mad they can’t date me they can just say that instead of projecting their sexual frustrations onto my boyfriend’s feet. Ya creepy weirdos."

She continued: "It’s starting to get old ignoring the very obvious, strange, and deranged sexual frustrations that underpin the Republican fixation on me, women,& LGBT+ people in general."

When Daily Wire editor Ian Haworth rejected the congresswoman's speculation as to himself, she mocked him for oversharing. "I hear if you say it enough times you’ll actually start to believe it."

Amid the barrage of online mockery of AOC for her "sexual frustrations" theory, Townhall columnist Kurt Schlicter saw a potentially "masterful" strategy.

The congresswoman "switched the topic from her abandonment of her constituents to a hellscape of Covid doom in favor of the mask-free liberty of Florida and steered the discussion to how hot she is," he said. "All props!"