AOC didn’t have $142K in debt forgiven, didn’t say ‘I deserve it’ | Fact check
The claim: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had $142,000 in student loans forgiven, said, ‘I deserve it for serving my country’
A June 26 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows an image of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"AOC Received $142K in Student Loan Forgiveness – ‘I deserve it for serving my country,’” reads text in the image.
The post was shared more than 300 times in five days.
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Our rating: False
A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez's campaign said the claim is false. It originated as satire on a social media account that posts satirical content, and its publisher said he fabricated the claim.
AOC debt forgiveness claim started as satire
Ocasio-Cortez has backed several programs aimed at assisting student borrowers – an issue a House committee has called a $1.5 trillion crisis – during three terms in Congress. The New York Democrat made a point about the issue by taking time during a 2019 meeting to submit a student loan payment.
But the claim in the post is false, Diego de la Vega, a spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez's campaign, told USA TODAY. The congresswoman did not have $142,000 of her own student loans forgiven, and she did not make the statement attributed to her, de la Vega said.
Fact check: Viral post baselessly claims Ocasio-Cortez has a net worth of $29 million
The claim originated in a June 23 Facebook post shared by the account “America – Love It Or Leave It,” which is part of a network of satirical accounts. Christopher Blair, who operates those accounts, told USA TODAY that he fabricated the claim. The account’s bio identifies it as satirical and states that “nothing on this page is real,” and the image in the post includes a watermark indicating it is satire.
The comments in the June 26 Facebook post include a link to a longer article that two detection tools found is likely AI-generated.
The article, despite its satirical origin, was posted as real on June 25. It claims Ocasio-Cortez’s loan forgiveness came via the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives the balance of borrowers who make 120 monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working for a qualifying employer. It also purports to quote the congresswoman saying the debt relief “allows me to focus on my work without the constant stress of overwhelming debt.” There is no credible evidence she made that statement. Nor is there any proof she made use of the loan forgiveness program.
The text of the article is 100% likely to have been generated by AI, according to the detecting tool GPTZero. A second detection website, Copyleaks, also found AI-generated text in the story.
Ocasio-Cortez’s history with the student loans she took out to attend Boston University is well documented. She said the payment she made during that 2019 committee meeting lowered her balance to $19,000. In a 2022 post on X, formerly Twitter, she stated, “I literally still have student loans.” And her most recent mandatory annual financial disclosure report, filed in August 2023, shows she was carrying between $15,001 and $50,000 in student loan debt at the time.
The June 26 Facebook post is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where content originally presented as satire is captured and reposted in a way that makes it appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, which is what happened here.
Ocasio-Cortez has been a frequent subject of those claims ever since she became the youngest woman elected to Congress in 2018. USA TODAY has debunked false assertions that she made a statement asking why her “socialist friends” are millionaires and that she promoted the printing of more money as a solution to inflation.
USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.
Snopes debunked a version of the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Diego de la Vega, July 2, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Christopher Blair, July 1, Email exchange with USA TODAY
America – Love It Or Leave It, June 23, Facebook post
GPTZero (Internet Archive), accessed July 1, AI detection results
Copyleaks (Internet Archive), accessed July 1, AI detection results
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Oct. 10, 2022, X post
House of Representatives, Aug. 13, 2023, Financial Disclosure Report
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim about AOC student debt forgiveness | Fact check
