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In an overnight blunder, NBC News tweeted that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nominated Bernie Sanders for president during her DNC speech. However, that wasn’t quite the case, and they’ve since issued a correction.
The Democratic National Convention formally nominated Joe Biden as its presidential candidate on Tuesday night. A roll call of states and territories was part of the process, which included votes for runner-up, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seconded his nomination. However, an overnight tweet by NBC News recapped her short speech without clarifying how conventions work.
“In one of the shortest speeches of the DNC, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse Joe Biden,” said the tweet. It went on to recap a portion of AOC’s speech that said, “I hereby second the nomination of Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America.”
What’s more, it didn’t take long for other networks to pick up on the tweet which continued the spread of the false narrative. AOC wasn’t happy about it, tweeting:
“So NBC News, how are you going to fix the incredible amount of damage and misinformation that you are now responsible for? Because a 1:15 am tweet to slip under the radar after blowing up a totally false and divisive narrative across networks isn’t it.”
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After being criticized for the misleading headline, NBC News deleted the tweet and issued a clarification that explained how the roll call was part of the convention process.
In a new tweet, NBC explained “This tweet should have included more detail on the nominating process. We have deleted the tweet to prevent its further spread, but it can be seen here for the record.”
NBC further explained in a second tweet that “Ocasio-Cortez was asked by the DNC to second Sanders’ nomination. The nomination is a procedural requirement of the convention.
Ocasio-Cortez has previously endorsed Biden, & her speech was similar in length to other nominating speeches.”
People on Twitter spoke out in reply to NBC’s tweet:
“Your deliberate tweet was intended to indicate AOC was being divisive. The damage is done. You cannot claim ignorance of the process or motive. It’s clear. And you’re going to need to do more than this to put it right,” said one of those tweets.
Related: Biden Receives Surprising Number of Republican Supporters
AOC also wasn’t impressed with the clarification from NBC News. As a result, she replied to the correction on Twitter, writing:
“You waited several hours to correct your obvious and blatantly misleading tweet. It sparked an enormous amount of hatred and vitriol, & now the misinfo you created is circulating on other networks.
“All to generate hate-clicks from a pre-recorded, routine procedural motion.”
She added, “This is completely unacceptable, disappointing, and appalling. The DNC shared the procedural purpose of my remarks to the media WELL in advance. @NBC knew what was going to happen & that it was routine.”
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