Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's biggest hypocrisies, controversies and allegations ...

She's the former New York barmaid turned darling of American socialism, having won over millions of fans with her woke views she regularly shares online.

But Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 31, prompted a furious backlash among even her own supporters this week as she was accused of hypocrisy for wearing a 'tax the rich' dress at the $35,000-a-head Met Gala.

The Democratic congresswoman and member of the 'Squad', a group of radical new leftist politicians, attended the elitist event with the world's rich and famous and wore a white dress with the slogan scrawled in red across her back.

She attended the exclusive gala with her boyfriend Riley Roberts and the designer of the dress Aurora James, the founder of celebrity-favourite fashion brand Brother Vellies.

AOC refused to reveal who paid for her $35,000 ticket and says the dress was borrowed, having been invited to the event as an elected official.

It was later revealed she attended as a guest of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, prompting calls for an investigation into whether she accepted 'an impermissible gift' of free tickets. 

It is not the first time the firebrand politician, who is the youngest ever woman to serve in Congress, has landed herself in hot water.

Here, MailOnline gives a rundown of the gaffes and controversies she has been involved in during her fledgling political career.

1. 'Famed economist Milton Keynes'

In 2020, AOC made an awkward blunder when she mixed-up two economists while addressing the benefits of a four-day work week in a video shared on Instagram.

The economics graduate from Boston University was asked by one of her followers to discuss the benefits of a shorter work week when she misspoke and referred to 'Milton Keynes', a commuter town in England.

Ocasio-Cortez later said she had confused a British economist, John Maynard Keynes, with Milton Friedman, who won the 1976 Nobel Prize.

John Maynard Keynes - who she intended to refer to - theorized that government spending was linked to economic growth.

He was an advocate for increased government expenditures and lower taxes in order to pull the global economy out of the depression.

Milton Friedman was an American economist who believed in free-market capitalism, and opposed the views of traditional economists like Keynes.

2. Party confusion

Back in 2019, AOC jumped to attack old, male Republicans for taking pictures with a cardboard cutout of her, not realising it was actually a fellow Democrat.

'GOP: Let's pose our older male members next to cardboard cutouts of young female legislators,' Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday in a deleted tweet.

She took down the tweet after a reporter pointed out that the man in the image, John Yarmuth, is actually a Democratic representative from Kentucky, who took the picture while attending the Democratic gubernatorial primary debate Wednesday night.

Outside of the debate location, GOP volunteers asked if Democratic lawmakers and candidates would link themselves to Ocasio-Cortez. 

Although none of the gubernatorial candidates took the GOP up on that offer, Yarmuth snapped a picture with the cutout. 

Ocasio-Cortez apparently did not recognize the image of Yarmuth, even though he is the chairman of the Budget Committee.

3. Capitol claims

On January 6, the Democrat lawmaker was in her office in the Cannon Office Building - which was evacuated but not breached - when rioters stormed the Capitol Building 0.3 miles away.

She said after the riots: 'I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.'

AOC also accused Ted Cruz of almost having her 'murdered', claiming he incited the insurrection, and said she feared being 'raped' by the mob.

Right-wing pundits like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Jack Posobiec also accused the lawmaker of exaggerating her account.

Carlson, on his Fox News show, said: 'The only subject she really cares about – herself.

'There she is again. Defender of the common man, yammering on about the only subject she really cares about - herself.

'Wallowing around in Lake Me like it's interesting to anybody but her. Narcissism on parade.'

'AOC Wasn't in the Capitol Building During Her 'Near Death' Experience,' Posobiec wrote on Twitter, adding in a separate tweet that 'Maps cut through the rhetoric.'

#AOClied trended on Twitter after her initial claims about nearly dying were doubted. 

4. Billionaires should not exist

The New York congresswoman said it is 'wrong' for billionaires to exist in the US and her policy advisor said: 'Every billionaire is a policy failure.'

The comments sparked a backlash with Bill Gates, who supports a harsher tax on the super wealthy, saying she is 'so extreme'.

He said: 'I believe US tax rates can be more progressive. Now, you finally have some politicians who are so extreme that I'd say, 'No, that's even beyond.' You start to create tax dodging and disincentives, and an incentive to have the income show up in other countries and things.'  

5. Colour blind

After her shock election win against Rep. Joe Crowley, AOC visited Kansas City to help a fellow Democratic hopeful in 2018.

In a video with her fellow socialist Bernie Sanders, she called on voters to turn Kansas City red, the colour associated with Republicans.

She said in a video: 'Hello, everybody! So excited to be here on Sen. Sanders' account and we're here in Kansas City to rally for Brent Welder. 

'We're gonna flip this seat red in November.'

6. Bronx born and raised?

The former barmaid and waitress has always been proud of her background and her working class roots in the Bronx.

But it was later revealed she mostly grew up in the wealthier Westchester County. 

The future socialist star was born in the Bronx but court records show her late father Sergio Cortez-Roman bought a quaint three-bedroom in Yorktown Heights, New York in 1991, when she was about two.

The revelation was an apparent contradiction of her official biography, which states in part: 'The state of Bronx public schools in the late 80s and early 90s sent her parents on a search for a solution. 

'She ended up attending public school 40 minutes north in Yorktown, and much of her life was defined by the 40 minute commute between school and her family in the Bronx.'

Initially, the young family lived in Parkchester, a planned community of 171 mid-rise brick buildings in the Bronx. 

When she was about five, Ocasio-Cortez's family moved to the house in Westchester County, a detail that the bio omits.

Ocasio-Cortez had also boasted on Stephen Colbert's late-night show that President Donald Trump, born in Queens, wouldn't know how to handle 'a girl from the Bronx' such as herself. 

7. Telling porkies?

Despite regularly admonishing Donald Trump for supposedly peddling lies, AOC was chastised by the Washington Post who gave her its most scathing 'Four Pinoccchios' rating for making false claims.

The Democrat incorrectly said the Pentagon had wasted $21trillion that could have paid for two thirds of all Medicare costs.

In fact, the entire budget for the Pentagon over 17 years was about $8.5trillion.

8. Unemployment figures

In 2018, AOC claimed: 'Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs. 

'Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their family.'

At the time, only six million Americans held two jobs compared to the 148million employed in a single job, making up around four per cent of the workforce.

The proportion of workers doing two jobs was actually lower at the time than throughout most of the 1990s and 2000s.

On average, employees were working 34.5 hours a week with only a tiny portion of the population holding two full time jobs.

Even if many people were holding multiple jobs, it would not affect the employment rate as that is calculated by the number of people rather than the number of jobs.

9. ICE beds

AOC has regularly made her feelings known about ICE, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement body while immigrants were being separated from their families at the Mexican border.

She once claimed: 'ICE is the only criminal investigative agency, the only enforcement agency in the United States that has a bed quota. 

'So ICE is required to fill 34,000 beds with detainees every single night and that number has only been increasing since 2009.' 

Except that is not quite true.

ICE indeed have 34,000 beds but staff are only made to maintain them, not to fill them.

The Department of Homeland Security ordered the agency 'shall maintain a level of not less than 34,000 detention beds through September 30, 2016'.

The language had last appeared on a bill in 2016 and was eliminated in 2017, so it was also inaccurate to claim the capacity had been increasing every year.

10. Class warfare 

The rising star also made an outlandish claim that there is no such thing as the upper-middle class in America.

While trying to bash older Democrats who were stuck in the politics of the 1990s, she said her fellow party members need to change with the times and address the changing demographics.

She said: 'They [Democrats] were campaigning most when we had more of an American middle class. 

'This upper-middle class is probably more moderate but that upper-middle class does not exist anymore in America.'

But data shows the complete opposite to be the case.

The upper-middle class has grown substantially, making up 29.4 per cent of the population in 2014 compared to 12.9 per cent in 1979. 

11. Medicare misunderstanding

A number of Democrats cited a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which receives funding from the Koch Foundation, claiming Bernie Sanders' Medicare-for-all plan would lower the country's health costs.

They said the study found overall health expenditures would drop by $2trillion with the plan. 

But the Mercatus Center said this would be an 'unlikely outcome' and it is more probably that the plan would see government spending rise by $33trillion.

Despite this, AOC claimed: 'In a Koch brothers-funded study — if any study's going to try to be a little bit slanted, it would be one funded by the Koch brothers — it shows that Medicare for all is actually much more, is actually much cheaper than the current system that we pay right now.'

12. Mask up for the cameras!

Last month, the firebrand Democrat was filmed putting her face mask on for a group photograph - only to whip it off a minute later during a rally on the steps of the Capitol.

The footage shows Ocasio-Cortez sitting among a group of activists fighting for an extension of the eviction moratorium without a mask on Monday.

An event organizer can then be heard telling everyone to come together on the steps of the Capitol Building before Ocasio-Cortez can be seen quickly putting a light blue face mask on. 

A minute later, in the footage captured by Breitbart News, the Democrat can be seen speaking to activists without her mask.

Ocasio-Cortez was also joined by Democrat senator Ed Markey in putting a face mask on the group photo, despite the pair going unmasked for the rest of the rally.

13. Designer socialism

Her Met Gala dress was not the first time AOC has been criticized for her expensive fashion taste despite her left-wing politics.

Last year, she appeared on a glossy cover of Vanity Fair, wearing an array of high-end clothes, shoes and jewellery.

The congresswoman was photographed in silk suits from Aliette, Loewe, Carolina Herrera, and wore Christian Louboutin heels, all of which come with hefty price tags. 

DailyMail.com revealed that she was gifted at least one of the looks - a $2,850 suit from Loewe. 

The total estimated retail cost of her outfits is more than $14,000. 

In one portion of the interview, she said 'dressing the part has been an unexpected struggle, but it's also a way to connect with constituents' while wearing an $800 dress and $1,450 earrings.

After a backlash, she retorted: 'Republicans are Very Mad (again) about my appearance. This time they're mad that I look good in borrowed clothes (again).

'Listen, if Republicans want pointers on looking your best, I'm happy to share. Tip #1: Drink water and don't be racist.'

14. Oil glee

The upstart politician was forced to delete a tweet last year saying 'you absolutely love to see it' while celebrating the price of oil crashing.

The Democrat quickly removed the post after being criticized for celebrating job losses, but still used the economic collapse to plug her Green New Deal.

The price of U.S. oil crashed into negative for the first time in history in April 2020 as demand dried up and producers paid buyers to take barrels off their hands.

The cost to have a barrel of U.S. crude delivered plummeted to negative $37.63. It was at roughly $60 at the start of the year.

'You absolutely love to see it,' Ocasio-Cortez replied to a post which said: 'Oil prices now at 'negative values,' meaning oil producers have to pay people to take it off their hands and store it because when demand plunges (like now), that is less expensive for them than building more storage and/or shutting wells down.'

Representative Jodey Arrington, a Republican from Texas, hit back: 'I don't 'love to see' oil & gas workers & their rural communities suffering as a result of this devastating price collapse, @AOC.

'Places like West Texas & hard-working men & women in the oil patch power the bright lights of NYC... including the hospitals!'

15. Flogging socialist merchandise

AOC was mocked in December for selling a $58 sweatshirt with the slogan 'tax the rich'. 

The socialist, who enjoys a six-figure congressional income, shared a link to the jersey writing: 'Preorders are open now. As always, made in the US with dignified, union jobs paying living wages.'