Elizabeth Warren spent her first few days after withdrawing from the 2020 presidential race hamming it up on Saturday Night Live. She did so alongside comedian Kate McKinnon, who frequently impersonated her on the sketch show.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez approved. The congresswoman has responded to a video shared by SNL of Warren and McKinnon backstage, in co-ordinating outfits, dancing goofily to Drake’s Flip The Switch in a dressing room. The video has been viewed almost 20 million times. 

“OK this is legendary,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. A tiny little missive, an innocuous tweet, really. Almost immediately, the internet lost its mind.

“It’s really not,” one person responded. “No, please, don’t,” read another tweet. “Delete this,” another wrote. “Glad you think it’s funny now you’ve made it to a more comfy class strata though,” another added. “I’m actually disgusted that while the people are fighting for the soul of this country she is dancing and rehearsing fodder for the masses,” said another.

Bear in mind that this isn’t the first time that Ocasio-Cortez has publicly celebrated Warren. The congresswoman might not have been campaigning on Warren’s behalf – her pick for the Democratic nomination is Bernie Sanders – but she nonetheless supported the senator. 

“Today is a hard day for so many people who love and respect Elizabeth Warren and admire her campaign – and I include myself in that,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, after Warren announcing she was dropping out of the race. “Thank you for being a role model.”

Of those lashing out at Ocasio-Cortez about her liking Warren’s SNL video, most seemed to take umbrage at the fact that Warren appeared on the show before passing on her endorsement to one of the other politicians still in the presidential race. 

For many, her silence on the endorsement, despite the fact she only dropped out of her campaign late last week, is insupportable. For them, it’s not even a question: Warren should immediately endorse Sanders, especially given how she has criticised Joe Biden for “selling out women” in the past.

People angry at Ocasio-Cortez liking Warren’s comedic turn on SNL are angry at Warren’s so-called flippancy, that she would dare to appear on a major television show in the days after pulling out of the presidential race. (Never mind the fact that Sanders has previously made a cameo on SNL, too.) They’re angry at Ocasio-Cortez enjoying Warren’s resilience in the face of her disappointment. They’re angry that a woman won’t immediately put her support behind another man. 

Just as a reminder: Warren only dropped out of the presidential race on Thursday. That video was filmed on Saturday. It is now Monday. Kamala Harris suspended her presidential campaign on 3 December and only just this weekend announced her support for Biden. Warren may very well have plans to make an endorsement today, or tomorrow, or pretty soon. We don’t know. But she is allowed to take her time to make that endorsement. 

And she’s allowed to dance on SNL, and Ocasio-Cortez is allowed to enjoy watching her. You know how it is – “Live from New York it’s Saturday Night,” and Warren is trying to let off steam for a few brief minutes after the end of her presidential campaign. It’s a new week now and her work will continue. 

You have to let her dance if she wants to. And you have to let Ocasio-Cortez call it “legendary”. Because it is. And Warren certainly was.

Images: Getty