The new Netflix documentary Take Down the House offers a behind the scenes look at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) historic run for the House of Representatives. But it’s a glimpse of her partner that many viewers are currently fixated on.
The documentary is the first time viewers really get an inside look at Ocasio-Cortez and Riley Roberts’ otherwise private relationship. For some, it’s the first time they have ever seen Ocasio-Cortez’s partner. And his appearance shocked one viewer who called Roberts a “bin raccoon” in a self-described “mean tweet” that quickly went viral and got the meme treatment–with many flipping the script and parodying it.
“Apologies for the blatantly mean tweet but THIS is what AOC’s boyfriend looks like? incredible scenes, truly representing all the ambitious and stunning millennial women shackled to boyfriends who look like bin raccoons out there,” people on Twitter wrote, each one providing their own take of what Ocasio-Cortez’s boyfriend “looks” like.
https://twitter.com/zachheltzel/status/1124399780954759168
apologies for the blatantly mean tweet but THIS is what AOC's boyfriend looks like? incredible scenes, truly representing all the ambitious and stunning millenial women shackled to boyfriends who look like bin raccoons out there pic.twitter.com/js4iIu2Ge4
— coup dat⚜️ (@floridalease) May 3, 2019
apologies for the blatantly mean tweet but THIS is what AOC's boyfriend looks like? incredible scenes, truly representing all the ambitious and stunning millenial women shackled to boyfriends who look like bin raccoons out there pic.twitter.com/F33OFRCidB
— Georgists Against Infill (@ebarcuzzi) May 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/meohmyapplepie/status/1124387352288419840
Apologies for the blatantly mean tweet but THIS is what AOC’s boyfriend looks like? incredible scenes, truly representing all the ambitious and stunning millennial women shackled to boyfriends who look like bin raccoons out there pic.twitter.com/Zkd4bE3js0
— View from my Office (@viewfrommyoffic) May 3, 2019
apologies for the blatantly mean tweet but THIS is what AOC's boyfriend looks like? incredible scenes, truly representing all the ambitious and stunning millenial women shackled to boyfriends who look like bin raccoons out there pic.twitter.com/gkORCgzD1u
— River🥥🌴 (@crazymagiclady) May 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/ajmalalami/status/1124366323658690560
Ocasio-Cortez even joined in on the boyfriend discourse. As it turns out, the couple had planned a quick getaway to the woods to become lumberjacks in case she lost in the primary. Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts were both growing their hair out to prepare.
After the win, Roberts had to cut his beard as the lumberjack dreams had come to a screeching halt. Though, I’m sure he wasn’t too disappointed about it; you can actually see him cry tears of joy after Ocasio Cortez’s win in the documentary.
We were so ready for lumberjack life after months of 18 hour days that neither one of us had gotten a haircut in months 😂 it’s also one reason why my hair was always in a bun
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 3, 2019
(It was very nice to see him again after we took a weed wacker to his castaway beard post-election ☺️) https://t.co/Ze5wc5HJ2K
The culprit of the mean tweet, Marie Le Conte, has since then deleted the tweet featuring her “perfectly fine joke,” and issued a clarification. “Bin raccoon,” for her, means scruffy rather than ugly.
“‘Bin raccoon’ meant scruffy for me,” Le Conte wrote on Twitter. “I wouldn’t call someone ugly!”
(on a brief serious note, because a few people have messaged on that point – "bin raccoon" meant scruffy for me, I've called myself that in the past, look through my tweets if you want; I wouldn't call someone ugly! I hope people who know me realise that?)
— Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) May 3, 2019
(anyway, wine)
Many actually found Roberts to be a super supportive, woke partner.
if you guys actually watched the knock down the house doc you would see that AOC's boyfriend is super supportive and sweet and engaged with the issues plaguing the democratic party. pic.twitter.com/CeJHmyNOZO
— Anna Menta (@annalikestweets) May 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/jiminivann/status/1124442848709885952
Joining the rest of Twitter to agree peak goals are getting me a boyfriend like Riley Roberts who looks at me as supportively as he looks at @AOC 🤗👌 #KnockDownTheHouse @knockdownmovie
— Rachel Gintner Orlando (@WiscoTwistoGal) May 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/arelialarco/status/1124033246730379264
Knock Down the House features four women who all shook up Congress in their own right through their respective campaigns.
“Their geographic diversity, gender and race—in what became a historic midterm for women and people of color—was meant to illustrate ‘a group that would make a national movement,'” the film’s director, Rachel Lears, told the New York Times.
Ocasio-Cortez ended up beating her democratic incumbent opponent Joe Crowley–a win that was seen as a shocking upset for the Democratic establishment. It even seems that Ocasio-Cortez was surprised by it herself.
READ MORE:
- Debunking the biggest Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez conspiracy theories
- No, Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t have her boyfriend on her payroll
- ‘Knock Down the House’ looks at the personal and political of 2018’s elections
- All the Netflix original movies and series coming in May
H/T Decider