Mother Jones Washington, D.C. bureau chief David Corn claimed he spotted “obscene” graffiti targeting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at an airport Tuesday, but the airport’s staff say they came up empty-handed after attempting to locate the purported drawing.
Corn told his more than 700,000 followers that he spotted the graffiti inside a bathroom stale at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport — but declined to share a photo of it. “I just spotted obscene anti-@AOC graffiti in a bathroom stall in the Phoenix airport. Yes, really. (Not going to post a photo of it.),” the veteran left-wing newsman said.
Roughly 20 minutes later, Phoenix Sky Harbor’s Twitter account replied to Corn’s tweet asking whether he would confirm which terminal and course the purported graffiti is in so it could notify its facilities team.
Corn responded over eight hours later to the airport, saying: “I was on a United flight to Houston about noon. Near that gate.”
On Wednesday morning, the airport told Corn that its facilities crew searched the bathrooms but did not find the purported drawing, noting that they are cleaned several times daily.
Corn then said the purported graffiti was drawn in black marker, raising the prospect that it may have been wiped off before the cleaning crew arrived. He then asked the airport to follow him so he could privately message the drawing.
Corn, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, is co-author of the book Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. As an MSNBC analyst, Corn has used his perch to drum up discussion of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, once calling it “the most consequential political scandal in American history.”
In 2017, Mother Jones launched an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Corn after two emails from staffers alleged he inappropriately touched female employees and made jokes about rape and “women’s sexuality and anatomy.”
In a statement to Politico, Corn denied touching “any work colleague in a sexual manner” — yet admitted that as an “exuberant person,” he is “known to pat male and female colleagues on the shoulder or slap them on the back, but always in a collegial or celebratory way.”