AOC Claps Back at Riley Gaines in Viral Exchange Everyone’s Talking About

Social media is both a wonderful tool for finding community and a place where the worst takes can find a home. For better or worse, you can say and do almost anything you want on these platforms, which is very much like the Wild West.

Because people are hiding behind a screen, it doesn't take much to nudge someone over to their darker side.

We have been gifted, or cursed, with many memorable online feuds that could have just as easily been an email. High-profile people love getting into it online, presumably because any attention is good attention, right?

Actually, that's wrong, but we digress. The political digital battles during President Trump's second administration have certainly heated up. For example, a beef between AOC and Riley Gaines garnered some attention. Let's get into it.

It's worth noting that Riley can't stop arguing with people online. In June 2025, she got into it with Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles over transgender athletes in sports.

After schooling Riley on inclusivity, Simone reminded her that she was never a very good swimmer. The problem always came from inside the hate-filled house.

Four months later, Riley was back in the social media boxing ring. This time, she set her sights on AOC, immediately following her appearance at a rally for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Riley posted a photo to X of AOC standing next to Zohran and Bernie Sanders. She captioned it, "We're being destroyed from within."

AOC reshared Riley's post and added a sick burn. "Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster, you wouldn’t have come in fifth," wrote AOC.

Riley then responded to AOC's insult by resharing that and adding, "It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a 'gotcha' by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation,* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division, lol."

She then called AOC a misogynistic dunce.

Riley appeared on Laura Ingraham's show, where she challenged AOC to a debate. "She can defend socialism; I will defend capitalism. She can defend removing God; I will defend embracing a Biblical worldview. She can defend child sacrifice; I will defend the sanctity of life," explained Riley.

In response to Riley's call to AOC to defend "any of the radical, insane democratic policies," the Congresswoman from New York challenged the former swimmer to get a real job. Riley got one more jab in when she replied to AOC, saying, "This is comical given it's coming from someone whose own party shut down the government and left you technically ... jobless."

Riley added that she assumes that's a no on the debate invitation.