Courtesy of an ongoing Congressional ethics investigation into Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we now know the trick to socialism: don’t pay for stuff. When AOC marched up the Met Museum steps in her famous dress 18 months ago, the slogan in red painted on the back, instead of reading “TAX THE RICH,” should have read “STIFF THE PROLETARIAT.”
AOC really wanted to attend the September 2021 Met ball – a charity event for its Costume Institute, yes, but also the world’s number-one social event for the rich, famous, and beautiful.
But $35,000 tickets for two people (she wanted her boyfriend to go, too) would cost nearly six figures (if the exclusive ball even approves you). Members of Congress can attend non-profit events, but the Met normally doesn’t invite all of Congress, and this isn’t AOC’s district.
So AOC came by the biggest part of her Met Gala grift the old-fashioned way: trading off of the elected position with which Bronx and Queens voters entrusted her.
AOC snagged two free tickets (after much prodding by her campaign staffer) by cozying up to Vogue’s Anna Wintour, who runs this show for the Met. AOC’s written invitation specifically informed her that she and her boyfriend were “guests of Vogue.”
Little problem: members of Congress can’t take near-seven-figure gifts from companies that employ lobbyists. Vogue is part of a sprawling media firm, including the firm that owns a big piece of Spectrum, our highly regulated internet provider.
As AOC’s anti-corruption lawyer warned her staff, “the Congresswoman could accept an invitation from [the Met], but not [italics his] from Vogue . . . Since Advance Publications is a registered lobbyist, we’ll need to be extra careful!”
Extra careful . . . the morning after. As a Vogue staffer informed AOC’s office the day after the ball, “Hope the [C]ongresswoman had a great time last night! … [W]e have had a number of inquiries . . . Mainly from Page Six. . . . Given that she was a guest of [V]ogue, we were planning to say . . . she was a guest of Anna [Wintour]’s. . . . wanted to check with you.”
