AOC interrupted at open of town hall by protester yelling about ‘genocide’ in Gaza

A hysterical protester yelling about the “genocide” in Gaza interrupted a district town hall event being held by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., shortly after it began Friday night.

Shortly after, Ocasio-Cortez began speaking she pulled up a PowerPoint presentation for the night’s event. She was interrupted before even getting through her first slide discussing the Trump administration’s budget cuts, including alleged cuts to local healthcare systems.  

“I am a healthcare worker and I want to know what youre doing about the genocide in Gaza!” the protester stood up and started shouting at the congresswoman. 

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“Shame! Shame! Shame!” the audience began shouting at the disruptor. Audible “boos” could be heard as well.

Ocasio-Cortez attempted to appease the disruptor, but nothing she could say calmed the person down. Staff at the event allowed the disruptor to continue yelling until they approached her and eventually pushed her out voluntarily. 

“Shame on you, I used to support you,” the woman shouted as she exited. “You’re a war criminal! War criminal! War Criminal!”

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Ocasio-Cortez responded to the protester after things quited down: 

“I more than welcome people who disagree, or are super pissed off at me for any issue to come, but we have some ground rules here,” she told the town hall’s attendees. “Please wait for the Q&A, because we don’t want to deprive all of our neighbors of the ability to have information and hearing them respond to it … We need to be able to have this conversation.”

As rumors swirl over Ocasio-Cortez’s ambition for higher office, the congresswoman raked in a massive $9.6 million over the past three months. The record-breaking fundraising haul was one of the biggest ever for any House lawmaker. Ocasio-Cortez’s team highlighted that the fundraising came from 266,000 individual donors, with an average contribution of just $21.

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“I cannot convey enough how grateful I am to the millions of people supporting us with your time, resources, & energy. Your support has allowed us to rally people together at record scale to organize their communities,” Ocasio-Cortez emphasized in a social media post.

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.