Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scolded a heckler during her Friday town hall after the audience member seemingly yelled that former Republican South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis is a “moron.”
Inglis and NBC News analyst Heather C. McGhee joined Ocasio-Cortez and MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes on stage during the town hall, which centered on the Green New Deal. The four of them were discussing whether or not Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive stances rivaled the grassroots Tea Party movement, when Inglis brought up the idea of focusing solely on climate change policy as a way to make progress on the issue.
WATCH:
“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?” Inglis began. “Could we come back to health care? Because, you know, I was in two Congresses that were totally consumed by health care.”
He continued, “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. 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?” (RELATED: Former Obama Aide Says Green New Deal Rollout Blunder Puts Climate Fight At Risk)
As members of the crowd booed, one voice in particular can be heard calling Inglis a “moron.”
“Hey, hey, hey! That’s unacceptable!” Ocasio-Cortez interjected, adding, “And that’s the difference between me and Trump.”
Ocasio-Cortez was likely pointing out the fact that at President Donald Trump’s rally in Michigan on Thursday, some in the crowd chanted, “AOC sucks!”
Donald Trump Jr. blasts Ocasio-Cortez: “Think about the fact that every mainstream, leading Democratic contender is taking the advice of a freshman congresswoman who three weeks ago didn’t know the three branches of government…that’s pretty scary”
Crowd chants: “AOC sucks!” pic.twitter.com/Qh4TmyVSFi
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 29, 2019
The chant broke out as Donald Trump Jr. criticized the Democratic Party for following her lead. As the chant subsided, Trump Jr. said, “You guys aren’t very nice and neither is what that policy would do to this country.”
Recent reports suggest the Green New Deal, which seeks to phase out fossil fuel usage within 12 years, could costs tens of trillions of dollars.
The GND’s popularity has risen as many of the Democratic presidential candidates have come out in support of it. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, who are both running, have signed on as Senate co-sponsors of the proposal.