Embattled Dem Rep. Jamaal Bowman enlisted heavy artillery from his party’s progressive wing for a weekend rally in The Bronx, but viral clips of cringey on-stage antics from him and the event’s star speakers overshadowed the message.
Footage from Saturday’s campaign rally at St. Mary’s Park in Mott Haven showed the badly struggling incumbent and fellow “Squad’ member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez acting like buffoons from the stage, gifting the Internet with heaps of unintentional humor.
AOC kicked things off by stomping around on stage to a blaring Cardi B song, appearing to try to summon the pomp of a superstar rapper about to perform her biggest hit to an adoring crowd.
The congresswoman from New York City bounded around waving her fists and roughly removing her hair tie before accosting the podium, shaking it so vigorously that she briefly knocked over her microphones.
“Are you ready to take the country back?!” the far-left House member shrieked to about 300 onlookers, a modest-sized crowd given the fact that her party has controlled the White House and Senate for the past four years.
The rally was a last-minute attempt to gin up support for Bowman ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, in which the two-term rep trails moderate Democratic challenger George Latimer by double digits in the district covering southern Westchester County and a portion of The Bronx.
Bowman is in very real danger of losing his seat after numerous controversies and oddball statements.
Not to be outdone by AOC, other footage showed Bowman, the sleeves of his yellow t-shirt rolled up, grabbing a stool from the Bronx rally stage, waving it in the air and slamming it down while leading the crowd in a chant of, “Cease-fire now!” in video shared on X by Freedomnews.tv.
Another clip showed the besieged congressman doing windmills with his arms to rally the crowd, jumping up and down, before bellowing, “We gonna show them who the f–k we are!” to raucous applause.
“We are gonna show f–king AIPAC the power of the motherf–king South Bronx,” the potty-mouthed congressman said, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in another clip circulating online.
In yet another bizarre moment, Bowman led the crowd in a chant of his own name, thundering, “Bowman! Bowman!” into the microphone and nodding in approval as people joined in.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was also in attendance but was considerably more measured in his remarks, calling Tuesday’s primary “one of the most important” elections in modern American history.
Footage of the unhinged behavior by the New York pols — who are infamously part of a group of far-left House members called “The Squad” — made the rounds online, garnering millions of views and thousands of derisive comments.
“I think she took a bit too much of whatever they give Biden before events,” one X user mused about AOC’s performative enthusiasm on a video shared by journalist Collin Rugg and viewed nearly 5 million times.
Another person wrote, “Their futures are all in jeopardy, that’s why they appear to be panicked.
“Time is slipping away fast.”
