'Support all women': MAGA Republicans outraged at AOC's viral insult of GOP activist

[Passages]

Ailia ZehraOctober 27, 2025 | 05:06PM ET

Editor's note: This headline has been updated.

A social media exchange between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and conservative activist Riley Gaines ignited a firestorm among MAGA Republicans on Monday.


Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer and vocal critic of transgender women in women's sports, shared a photo on the social platform X of Ocasio-Cortez with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D) at a rally in New York held Sunday.

Gaines wrote, "We're being destroyed from within."

Ocasio-Cortez reacted to her post and wrote, "Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth."

The remark referenced Gaines's fifth-place finish at the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships, where she tied with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
https://www.alternet.org/aoc-maga-gop/

Smart, unrelenting.

[WhiteTara]

1. Good job AOC!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

2. OUCH!!!

That's going to leave a mark.

[Trueblue Texan]

3. And look at that, "We're being destroyed from within."

Consistently projecting. It's what they do.

[niyad]

4. Not all women are my sisters, and I will treat them accordingly.

[slightlv]

7. Why do always have to be our own worst enemies? (sigh)...

I love it when my sisters and I get together to share anything. There is such a feeling that, as much as I can love men and appreciate the good ones, it just doesn't come close to the warmth I feel with my sisters. But even we know we have to be on guard against the lone female who would work against us. And, given that my default mode is "trust first" I've felt more than once the disappointment and disillusionment when I run up against the one or few who shouldn't have been trusted in the first place. I think at my age, I'm circling back around to my protective, Dianic beginnings!

[niyad]

9. I understand what you mean. My default setting always has been a bit

different, courtesy of school, and my college encounters with phyllis schlafly, and the rest of the anti-ERA crowd. As you can probably tell by my avatar, my practice has always been Dianic. I do have wonderful male friends, but my women friends are so very special!

By the way, love your avatar. My kitty is currently sleeping, purring, on my lap, happy that mom is home. He hates having me out of his sight!

[Zorro]

5. What do MAGA Republicans not get outraged about?

[slightlv]

8. It's amazing, isn't it? If it weren't for declaring themselves victims of absolutely everything

I swear they'd cease to exist altogether! They have no idea what persecution really is and how it feels. But I'd love to drop them off in the Middle East... or elsewhere... where they could truly experience it and maybe "grow up" a little bit.

[Mr.WeRP]

6. That's gonna leave a mark!