Does a photo show that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke at a microphone wearing a revealing transparent black dress? No, that's not true: The original press photo from a re-election kickoff event was published in the New York Post on Feb. 15, 2020. It shows Ocasio-Cortez wearing a black dress that is not transparent -- the photo in the social media post is an altered version of the New York Post image.
The edited photo resurfaced in a post on X (archived here) published by Dom Lucre on August 20, 2025. It was captioned:
One of the funniest moments of my year was when I gained mainstream media coverage and forced AOC's assistant to respond to this photo.
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of @dom_lucre post on X)
A reverse image search with Google Lens pointed to the original photo published by the New York Post on Feb. 15, 2020 (pictured below).
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of New York Post article)
The New York Post article titled, "AOC: We need to 'slow down' on bail reform fixes" (archived here) offers the context behind the photo:
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made the remarks during a ceremony to kick off her 2020 re-election effort in Parkchester, the Bronx, on Saturday. She warned that powerful monied interests had assembled to thwart the law's success.
The photo is captioned:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks in Corona, Queens.
Joe DeMaria
