Watch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Illustrate Exactly How Broken Our Campaign Finance Laws Really Are

It’s not a huge revelation that American politicians on both sides of the aisle are funded by corporate political action committees and use their legislative power to lobby not just for PACs’ interests, but for their own benefit. However, the complex political system often makes our country’s ethically broken campaign laws difficult to understand. Thankfully, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in a lightning-round series of questions during a House committee in a since-viral video, showing us, plain and simple, that it’s entirely legal for members of the government to be ‘80s-style greedy villains under U.S. law. And, unsurprisingly, it’s even easier, and still legal, for the president to get away with such ethically dubious actions.

‘We have a system that is fundamentally broken.’ — Rep. @AOC is explaining just how f*cked campaign finance laws really are pic.twitter.com/sCwpkRzcHB

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 8, 2019

“I’m going to be the bad guy, which I’m sure half the room would agree with anyway, and I want to get away with as much bad things as possible, ideally to enrich myself and advance my interests, even if that means putting my interests ahead of the American people,” the New York Democrat began.

Ocasio-Cortez confirmed the legality of a political campaign funded entirely by PACs; the use of hush money to keep skeletons in the closet; impacting legislation in which one has PAC-motivated interests; and simultaneously holding in an industry while taking legislative action (e.g., deregulation) that benefits that industry.

One of the most chilling lines she utters comes after she confirms that the use of hush money is legal: “That money is considered speech.” When a country that values the freedom of speech as much as the U.S. begins to equate the use of funds with that fundamental right, well, that’s how we end up in our current cesspit.

And, don’t forget—all of the “bad guy” stuff AOC confirmed was legal for Congresspeople to engage in is still more ethically regulated than the President’s behavior. Watch the video, compiled by NowThisNews, up above.