Photos taken last year of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a detention center for children of illegal immigrants were so awkwardly dramatic that even her supporters labeled them “staged.”

Now, newly surfaced alternate angles during that same timeframe seem to confirm their suspicions.

A photographer who captured the scene from a trip to El Paso, Texas in 2018, shared the images on the one-year anniversary of a protest at the Tornillo detention center.

The New York Democrat then shared the photos with her 4 million-plus followers.

Ocasio-Cortez can be seen with a sad, faraway look in her eyes – more than usual – as she buckles at the knees and sobs with her face in her hands at the sight of the suffering children.

I’ll never forget this, because it was the moment I saw with my own eyes that the America I love was becoming a nation that steals refugee children from their parents,& caged them. More kids died after this. To date, no one has been held accountable. We need to save these kids. https://t.co/HhdMqc5zML — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 25, 2019

“I’ll never forget this, because it was the moment I saw with my own eyes that the America I love was becoming a nation that steals refugee children from their parents [and] caged them,” she said.

What Was She Really Looking At?

The images were so above and beyond anything remotely realistic that her supporters complained they weren’t helping the cause.

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“I love AOC but these images feel so staged, it undermines her credibility on these issues,” one follower wrote.

The Political Insider noted that the images appeared to show no children on either side of the fence, making it a mystery as to what Ocasio-Cortez was crying about.

It was “a crisis so bad she collapsed in horror at an open gate with no children in sight,” we wrote.

Here’s What She Was Really Looking At

Tom Elliott, founder and editor of Grabien Media, searched his own database and located two images that show Ocasio-Cortez staring into an empty parking lot.

Searched Grabien’s PhotoBank and found these alternate angle pics of @AOC where her sad-face pics were shot. Apparently she was crying about the lack of migrant children for her photo op. pic.twitter.com/8FMB8OQR6K — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 26, 2019

Other images show exactly how the photographer at the scene was taking images of Ocasio-Cortez and not the suffering little children. Because … well, there were no suffering little children.

So AOC was really just trying to get some stock border crisis images for Getty. The “crying at the border” pics were just crying at cars behind a fence 🤷🏼‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/AHGd7B7Jx2 — Paige Sullivan (@PaigeSully88) June 26, 2019

Who knows, maybe Ocasio-Cortez was just imagining the children going through such a difficult time, which NBC described as being in “fully enclosed air-conditioned tents, where they receive schooling, meals, and recreational activities.”

Maybe she stubbed her toe.

What’s almost a certainty, however, is that she wasn’t crying over any actual children.