US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has slammed a Republican senator after a photo surfaced showing a group of young men wearing his campaign shirt pretending to choke and grope a cardboard cut-out of the progressive politician.
Taking to Twitter on Monday, Ms Ocasio-Cortez asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell if he was "paying for young men to practice groping and choking members of Congress".
"Or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch," she continued.
The photo, reportedly taken on Saturday at an event called the Fancy Farm Picnic in Kentucky, shows seven young men wearing 'Team Mitch' shirts surrounding the cut-out alongside the caption "break me off a piece of that".
According to the Washington Post, Senator McConnell's campaign manager was quick to respond claiming the young men in the photo were high-school students with no official political affiliation. He also condemned the behaviour.
In a statement on Twitter, the 'Team Mitch' campaign accused Ms Ocasio-Cortez of trying to dox - the practice of posting identifying information about a person on the internet - the allegedly underage men featured in the image for "taking a photo with a cutout at the Fancy Farm political picnic".
On Tuesday, Mr McConnell's campaign came under fire again - this time for sharing an image of a cut-out tombstone featuring the name of his progressive opponent.
The picture targetted Democratic candidate Amy McGrath, who is challenging Senator McConnell in the 2020 race, alongside the name of Judge Merrick Garland.
