--- title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Compares Billionaires to Michael Scott description: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweets at a Times Square billboard denouncing her criticism of Amazon's plan to open a New York headquarters. canonical: https://time.com/5534842/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-billionaires-michael-scott/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-21T20:23:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:37.150Z og:title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Trolls a Billboard With Pop Culture og:description: The congresswoman has hit back at an attack billboard og:url: https://time.com/5534842/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-billionaires-michael-scott/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bc6948b2acb9473/6989459497cdff70656b75ff/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-michael-scott.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-Michael-Scott og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Trolls a Billboard With Pop Culture twitter:description: The congresswoman has hit back at an attack billboard twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bc6948b2acb9473/6989459497cdff70656b75ff/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-michael-scott.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Invoked Pop Culture to Hit Back at a Critical Billboard  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 21, 2019 8:23 PM UTC  U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a news conference at the East Front of the U.S. Capitol February 7, 2019 in Washington, DC. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a news conference at the East Front of the U.S. Capitol February 7, 2019 in Washington, DC.Alex Wong/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 21, 2019 8:23 PM UTC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez](http://time.com/5520296/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-state-of-the-union/) has hit back at a New York City billboard denouncing her [criticism of Amazon’s now-cancelled plan](http://time.com/5530386/aoc-amazon-new-york-hq2/) to open a [new headquarters](http://time.com/5529733/amazon-new-york-headquarters-hq2-cancelled/) in Queens. After a conservative group called the Job Creators Network put up a digital ad in Times Square attacking Ocasio-Cortez for allegedly contributing to the loss of NYC jobs and wages, the 29-year-old congresswoman took to Twitter to call out the “billionaire-funded” organization. “Few things effectively communicate the power we’ve built in fighting dark money & anti-worker policies like billionaire-funded groups blowing tons of cash on wack billboards (this one is funded by the Mercers),” she tweeted, referencing conservative mega-donors Robert and [Rebekah Mercer](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4742759/rebekah-mercer/), who have close ties to the Trump administration. “P.S. \[The\] fact that it’s in Times Sq\[uare\] tells you this isn’t for/by \[New Yorkers\]. > [](https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1098456697214062592) Ocasio-Cortez then doubled down by invoking a scene from _The Office_ in her takedown of the billboard. “Billionaires paying to put up anti-progressive propaganda in Times Square is like the obscenely rich version of the scene where Michael Scott points to the Bubba Gump and saying ‘This is it, this is the heart of civilization, right here,'” she wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1098463983256944641) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5534842/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-billionaires-michael-scott/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5534842/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-billionaires-michael-scott/"},"headline":"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Invoked Pop Culture to Hit Back at a Critical Billboard","datePublished":"2019-02-21T20:23:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:37.150Z","description":"The congresswoman has hit back at an attack billboard","url":"https://time.com/5534842/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-billionaires-michael-scott/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bc6948b2acb9473/6989459497cdff70656b75ff/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-michael-scott.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bc6948b2acb9473/6989459497cdff70656b75ff/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-michael-scott.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-Michael-Scott","caption":"U.S. Rep. 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