Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was holding a town hall when a man questioned the socialist’s “fascist” perspective on free speech and was promptly cut off from speaking. The irony is pretty rich here…

James Scott Berry came up to speak and asked two questions. The first question was about violence against teachers in school but the second question got the most attention. He asked about free speech and how great it is that we have the right to disagree:

“In America, you can hate Donald Trump, and because it is not against the law he cannot put you in prison. Isn’t that a great thing?”

Ocasio-Cortez came back lecturing Berry and claiming we have “limitations on our freedom of speech”:

“I think that at the bedrock of what you are discussing is freedom of speech and the freedom of expression. I think that we have the freedom to express ourselves, but we should also know that in the United States there are also limitations on our freedom of speech.”

Berry wasn’t giving up and shot back:

“No, only if it involves violence or threats, things that are illegal.”

Ocasio-Cortez agreed but then Berry claimed it’s not free speech. That’s when his mic went dead!

“Exactly”

Berry claimed:

“But that’s not free speech, threats are not free speech. I don’t think you should say that because that’s confusing the issue.”

Ocasio-Cortez continues to yammer on while Berry becomes more and more upset that he can’t be heard:

“I just want to introduce some nuance to the conversation,” she said. “I’m just trying to introduce some nuance to the conversation. I’m not trying to have an argument here, I want to have a discussion. I’m absolutely open to being proven wrong on many issues. I’ll just let you know my perspective. My perspective is that we absolutely have protected freedom of speech. Someone can say ‘I hate so-and-so’ and that is protected speech.”

You still can’t hear Berry who tries to respond to the lecture and then a lackey for AOC comes over to speak with Berry who was really agitated that he couldn’t respond:

“If you didn’t turn my mic off, I wouldn’t have to raise my voice. You fascists turned my mic off.”

This is where it gets totally absurd because Ocasio-Cortez finally tells someone they can turn Berry’s mic back on:

“Oh sir, no, no. You can turn his mic on, you didn’t have to turn it off.”

AOC continued to lecture Berry:

“I think for me sir, my concern is we have the freedom to say I hate this, or I hate that. Where I do get concerned is where that line is played with so that we have plausible deniability to incite violence against people. I don’t think the president should have tweeted that video that he tweeted.”

She was referring to President Trump tweeting out a video with shots from 9/11 and Rep. Ilhan Omar saying “some people did something”. Omar claimed the tweet lead to death threats.

Ocasio-Cortez continues:

“Do I think he should have gone to jail for it? Absolutely not…But I don’t think he should have done that. I think by endangering Congresswoman Omar he was playing with this line…”

Berry shot back in disagreement:

“Well, I disagree. She endangered herself.  That’s not endangerment by showing a true video. So showing the truth is endangerment, is inciting violence, to show the truth. That is fascism. His right to show the truth of what happened is just as valid as her right to say whatever she wants to say.”

The argument continues with Ocasio-Cortez clearly getting steamed at the very persistent Mr. Berry. He got his point across!