Shapiro, Not AOC, Wrote Tweet About Olympic Athletes
The Claim
AOC posted a tweet that said: “If you smoke pot you can be disqualified from the Olympics but if you are a biological man who takes a year of estrogen you can compete against the ladies in weightlifting.”
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Emerging story
On July 5, 2021, an Instagram user posted a tweet allegedly written by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The post was liked and shared hundreds of times.
Misbar’s Analysis
The tweet references the recent one-month suspension handed down to Sha’Carri Richardson after she tested positive for marijuana. It also references transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard’s participation in the upcoming Olympics. Misbar has debunked claims about both athletes before.
Misbar's investigation found that AOC did not write the tweet. We looked through her Twitter post history and deleted tweet archive and could not find any evidence that she posted the tweet.
We further discovered that the original tweet was posted by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, whose political views often counter those of AOC.
For example, the tweet seems to go against AOC’s overt support of trans rights.
AOC did ask for the Anti-Doping Agency to repeal Richardson’s 30-day ban from the Olympics, saying that a “ban on marijuana is a significant and unnecessary burden on athletes’ civil liberties.”
