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Phoenix Congratulate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez After Dance Video “Leak” Backfires

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 03: Member elect Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) talks to fellow members of Congress during the first session of the 116th Congress at the U.S. Capitol January 03, 2019 in Washington, DC. Under the cloud of a partial federal government shutdown, Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reclaimed her former title as speaker and her fellow Democrats took control of the House of Representatives for the second time in eight years.(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, the night before Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was officially sworn in as the youngest woman to ever serve in Congress, a video of her dancing surfaced online. Specifically, the video showed her and some friends from her undergraduate days at Boston University dancing on a rooftop to Phoenix’s “Lisztomania,” à la this Phoenix/Brat Pack viral mashup video from 2009.

As The New York Times reports, the footage was seemingly shared by a right-wing troll in the latest attempt to embarrass Ocasio-Cortez. “Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is,” the account @AnonymousQ1776 tweeted along with an edited version of the original footage. The account has since been deleted.

But if the video was meant to shame her, it backfired spectacularly. “Now she’s totally done for. Newly unearthed video reveals that when @AOC was in college, she was … adorable,” The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty tweeted. Patton Oswalt agreed. The Breakfast Club stars Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy invited her into the club. The Twitter account AOC Dances To Every Song turned the video into a great meme. Ocasio-Cortez herself tweeted another video of her dancing outside her new office, which quickly became her most retweeted tweet. And now Phoenix have responded.

“@AOC, Congratulations on being the youngest woman ever being elected to Congress!” the band’s account tweeted early yesterday evening. “Tendrement, Phoenix.” Check out the tweets and the videos below.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1081234130841600000

This article originally appeared on Stereogum.