Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s sharp response to former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines is taking the internet by storm after the two clashed on social media over a political rally in New York City.
On Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders joined New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani at a rally attended by roughly 13,000 supporters.
Highlights
- AOC delivered a viral speech celebrating New York's diverse immigrant and minority communities at Zohran Mamdani's rally with 13,000 attendees.
- Riley Gaines, anti-transgender sports activist and former NCAA swimmer, criticized AOC's speech, sparking a sharp viral comeback from the congresswoman.
- AOC mocked Gaines' fifth-place finish behind a transgender athlete with a biting tweet, which gained widespread social media attention.
- Gaines challenged AOC to a debate defending capitalism and conservative values; AOC retorted by questioning Gaines' employment status.
AOC gave a passionate speech at the rally, celebrating New York’s diversity and unity, which quickly went viral on social media.
AOC’s response to Riley Gaines following a speech at a NYC rally has gone viral online
Image credits: Andres Kudacki/Getty Images
“This city was built by the Irish escaping famine, Italians fleeing fascism, Jews escaping the Holocaust, Black Americans fleeing slavery and Jim Crow, Latinos seeking a better life, Native people standing for themselves, Asian Americans coming together in Queens, in Brooklyn, in The Bronx, in Manhattan, in Staten Island,” she said as the crowd cheered her on.
Gaines was not happy about the speech and shared a photo from the rally, writing, “We’re being destroyed from within.”
In 2022, Gaines had tied with a transgender woman, Lia Thomas, for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
“We’re being destroyed from within,” Riley Gaines (picture on the right below) wrote on social media
Image credits: Rich von Biberstein/Getty Images
Since then, she has been a prominent activist opposing transgender women’s participation in women’s sports.
AOC noticed the post and fired back with a biting comment that has since gone viral:
“Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster, you wouldn’t have come in fifth.”
“Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster, you wouldn’t have come in fifth.”
The tweet immediately exploded across social media, and many users praised the congresswoman’s response.
“That s**t hurt ME and I wasn't even the target,” one user joked.
Another wrote, “Never seen a professional swimmer get drowned by a member of Congress.”
AOC responded, taking a jab at Gaines’s swimming defeat against a transgender woman
But many also criticized AOC for insulting another woman over her professional defeats.
“You can disagree with Riley on political issues without betraying women and girls,” said one user.
Earlier this year, Riley praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ which limits participation based on biological sex.
“It is my hope that today demonstrates to educational institutions that they will no longer be allowed to trample upon women’s civil rights, and renews hope in every female athlete that their country’s highest leadership will not relent until they have the dignity, safety, and fairness they deserve,” she said in a statement.
Based on Trump’s executive order, UPenn had agreed to strip Thomas of her swimming records and ban transgender athletes from competing in female-only sports.
Following AOC’s tweet, Gaines appeared on Fox News to “challenge AOC to a debate.”
“She can defend socialism; I will defend capitalism. She can defend removing God; I will defend embracing a biblical worldview. She can defend child sacrifice; I will defend the sanctity of life. Any of the radical, insane Democrat policies and platform that they stand for, I will debate the opposite. I’m challenging AOC to it here,” Riley said.
Ocasio-Cortez didn’t hesitate to reply. “And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job,” she wrote on X, adding fuel to the already heated exchange.
Social media users reacted instantly to the ongoing back-and-forth. “Lmao you going 2 for 2,” one person commented.
"I have a real job. I'm a mom. It's the most important & rewarding job in the world," Gaines responded to AOC's comments on X. "I think if you had a baby girl like I do, you'd understand my positions a little better."
Riley Gaines also appeared on Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, where she addressed AOC's comments, calling them virtue-signaling.
"I'll never forget I went to the joint address to Congress President Trump gave earlier this year, and it was right after they heard a vote on keeping men out of women's sports, where, of course, every single Democratic senator voted in opposition of protecting girls in sports," Gaines said on Fox and Friends.
"It was the most remarkable thing because I walk into that hall and I see all of the Democratic senators, all of the women, wearing pink to stand with women to show how they are the party of and for women when just the day before they voted against our rights to equal opportunity, to safety in our sports, voted against our rights to privacy in areas of undressing. They are virtue signaling, it's virtue signaling at its finest."
More political drama is expected to ensue as Mamdani challenges Andrew Cuomo for New York’s mayoral election, which will take place on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
On Tuesday, the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a campaign finance watchdog group, filed two criminal referrals against Mamdani, claiming he received illegal contributions from foreign donors.
Mamdani's campaign maintains that any issue regarding contributions has been resolved.
Mamdani, whose platform is built on affordable housing, free child care, free buses, and other progressive policies, is likely to win the election, as per polls and betting markets.
Mamdani is likely to win New York’s November 4 election
Image credits: Real Clear Politics
His mayoralty and progressive ideas are likely to spark direct conflict with Trump’s conservative policies.
Trump has already labeled Mamdani a “communist” and threatened to withhold funding and send troops to New York if he is elected mayor.