Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
On Sunday, OutKick podcaster Riley Gaines shared a photo on her X account of New York mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani at a campaign rally flanked by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “We’re being destroyed from within,” Gaines wrote. The next day, Ocasio-Cortez responded to the post with a personal dig at Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer who became one of the leading voices against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports after she tied for fifth place with UPenn’s Lia Thomas in an NCAA championship event in 2022. “Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X. To which Gaines replied, “It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a ‘gotcha’ by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol.“ (She’s referring to a widely reported ranking Thomas had while competing as a male.) Gaines then called Ocasio-Cortez a “misogynistic dunce,” and the internet was off and running, with supporters of each woman hurling insults at the other. Gaines, who gave birth to a daughter a month ago, has since offered to debate AOC. Ocasio-Cortez did not seem to take the challenge seriously, writing on X, “And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job,” a line that might not go over well with America’s stay-at-home moms and dads. Others then took up the mudslinging on behalf of either Gaines or AOC. Christian podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey, recently profiled by The Wall Street Journal, found an old social-media post in which Ocasio-Cortez said “sex work is work,” and she noted the contrast between that line of work and Gaines’ current responsibilities. AOC supporters charged that Riley owes her fame to transgender athletes and made personal and sometimes vulgar attacks on her. NewsNation personality Chris Cuomo, whose brother Andrew Cuomo is running against Mamdani, also weighed in, chastising Ocasio-Cortez for being in a “teenage trash-talking battle” with Gaines. He said that Ocasio will be a real contender in 2028. “She’s got a big following, she’s got big charisma, she’s got a growing amount of power.” But how political leaders respond to things in public matter, Cuomo said on his NewsNation show. “I don’t think these kinds of antics are getting you where you want to be with the majority in this country,” Cuomo said. The comments are also unlikely to stop Gaines from her advocacy. She told the Deseret News earlier this year, “I know everyone is different, but speaking for myself, I feel this level of serenity, if you will, just totally at peace with how I conduct myself, how I approach the conversation, with my messaging, with what side of history that I’m going to be on. Because I know it’s the right thing. And I think when you know something is right, it makes it easy.”
