U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended a former GOP congressman as she reprimanded a heckler who called him a “moron” during a town hall meeting.
The New York Democrat quickly scolded the audience member who appeared to yell out the insult at former Rep. Bob Inglis during a discussion of the Green New Deal at an MSNBC town hall on Friday which also included NBC News analyst Heather C. McGhee and MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes.
As Hayes brought up the effectiveness of the grassroots Tea Party movement, and any comparisons to how Ocasio-Cortez presses her progressive stances, Inglis suggested that a focus only on climate change could be an effective method of moving forward.
“What we do is if we have a basically the mirror image of a Trump rally on climate change that we drive all the people away that could come our way and solve this thing now and then could we come back to things like universal basic income?” the former South Carolina Republicam who left office in 2011, said.“Could we come back to health care? Because, you know, I was in two Congresses that were totally consumed by health care.”
“You can’t do it in a single Congress, the entire Green New Deal. It is literally impossible with the number of committee references that you would have in the course of that,” Inglis contended. “So is it possible that we say, ‘Listen, climate change is the thing that we’re seeing the whites of its eyes. We got to act now.’ Can we come back maybe to universal basic income a little bit later?”
As the audience reacted, one man appeared to yell out, “Make the changes now, you moron!”
“Hey, hey, hey, hey that’s unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez countered, and then immediately patted herself on the back.
“And that’s the difference between me and Trump,” she said.
The New York congresswoman may have been making reference to President Donald Trump’s rally in Michigan on Thursday, where the audience broke out into chants of “AOC sucks!” as Donald Trump Jr. warmed the crowd up before his father took the stage.
Rally crowd chants ‘AOC sucks!’ as Trump Jr. ripped into Ocasio-Cortez https://t.co/lrllEZ7678
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) March 29, 2019
“You guys aren’t very nice,” Trump Jr. joked amid the chanting. “And neither is what that policy would do to this country.”
Ocasio-Cortez later addressed the town hall incident on Twitter, urging “Let’s debate, not debase.”
Let’s debate, not debase. ✌? https://t.co/QqmRpT92NF
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 30, 2019
Inglis pointed to the “high road” in a tweet after the event, noting that it was “good of” the freshman congresswoman to have defended him.
It was a meaningful moment and good of @AOC. If we focus on climate change, there’s an #EcoRight that can balance the Environmental Left. The high road leads to solutions. The show airs tonight at 8:00 EDT. https://t.co/yos8QIw9mj
— Bob Inglis (@bobinglis) March 29, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez dealt with her own heckler during an education twon hall in New York City earlier this month, inviting the critic to a discussion.
Rather than shout down a heckler, @AOC invited them into her fight for equality pic.twitter.com/eDNj8VkBzj
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 24, 2019
While her supporters fawned over her handling of the heckler at the MSNBC town hall, many others were skeptical at best about how the incident played out.
Wow such bravery ……?
— Dolly (@dollysmalls) March 30, 2019
???
— Christoph Waltz’s side piece (@pipandbaby) March 30, 2019
That’s the difference? You don’t seem to have any trouble dishing shade online.
— Nathan Lyle (@NathanAaronLyle) March 30, 2019
Very theatrical, well rehearsed town hall meeting, right down to the heckler. No real depth or plan discussed, just the same reteric.
— Theresa Jernigan (@JerniganTheresa) March 30, 2019
Very theatrical, well rehearsed town hall meeting, right down to the heckler. No real depth or plan discussed, just the same reteric.
— Theresa Jernigan (@JerniganTheresa) March 30, 2019
I give AOC credit for calling out the heckler, but did she have to draw so much attention to it? Just seemed like she’s making sure she gets credit for doing the right thing instead of just doing the right thing for its own sake
— AlkaFeltser (@AFeltser) March 30, 2019
That “heckler” probably gets emailed every week by AOC’s staff begging for donations. It’s not heckling to be angry when the GOP says you’re not worth helping. Dems need to stop thinking they earn brownie points from the enemy when they publicly scold their own supporters.
— Why Can’t UBI? (@ingsucc) March 30, 2019
I bet that heckler didn’t vote for Trump though….
— Richardski Piercekov (@De5picableScout) March 30, 2019
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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