Video of AOC Criticizing Lawmakers for Not Reading Bills Watched 1M Times

A video of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticizing members of Congress for not reading bills before commenting on them has now been viewed more than 1 million times.

Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who represents New York's 14th congressional district, made the remarks during a hearing on Capitol Hill about a public banking bill she introduced last year with Representative Rashida Tlaib.

She shared a tweet featuring the 40-second video of her comments on Twitter on Wednesday and offered further criticism of Republican lawmakers who she said hadn't read legislation.

Ocasio-Cortez said: "I learned a while ago, you know when I first got to Congress, I thought, man, people definitely study what they're talking about here."

"Then I got here and realized that people don't even - a lot of my colleagues don't even read the bills that they are commenting on."

She then held up a copy of the bill and said: "But for anyone who's curious, it's right here at the desk.

"We're making lots of statements that have nothing to do with the legislation and frankly, you know, if I made comments that very publicly demonstrated that I didn't read the legislation I was discussing, I'd be embarrassed, but that is an aside."

The clip had been viewed 1.2 million times at the time of writing. Sharing the video on Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez wrote: "Today we held the first Congressional hearing in modern history on public banking."

"Apparently it is too high of a bar to expect Republican members of Congress to, you know, actually read the bills they're talking about, but nevertheless it went very well!" she added.

Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, a Democrat who represents Michigan's 13th congressional district, introduced legislation to enable the creation of public banks in October last year.

The Public Banking Act would allow for the "creation of state and locally administered public banks by establishing the Public Bank Grant program administered by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board which would provide grants for the formation, chartering and capitalization of public banks."

In a statement on the bill at the time, Ocasio-Cortez said she was "proud to partner" with Tlaib on the issue.

"Public banks are uniquely able to address the economic inequality and structural racism exacerbated by the banking industry's discriminatory policies and predatory practices," Ocasio-Cortez said.

"The creation of public banks will also facilitate the use of public resources to construct a myriad of public goods including affordable housing and local renewable energy projects. Public banks empower states and municipalities to establish new channels of public investment to help solve systemic crises," she added.

Newsweek has asked Representative Ocasio-Cortez for comment.