Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s muted response to a woman who pushed the idea of “eating babies” as a way to stop climate change set Twitter alight.
The bizarre exchange took place during a town hall on Thursday in Corona, New York.
A woman, wearing a T-shirt with the words “Eat the Children” on it, stood up to ask Ocasio-Cortez a question. Citing predictions by a “Swedish professor,” the woman stressed the importance of urgent action on climate change since “we only have a few months left.”
“So I think your next campaign slogan has to be this: ‘We got to start eating babies! We don’t have enough time! There is too much CO2,” she said.
“All of you … you are a pollutant, too much CO2, we have to start now, please, you are so great, I’m so happy that you really are supporting New Green Deal, but it’s not enough, you know, even if we would bomb Russia, we still have too many people,” the woman added. “Too much pollution, so we have to get rid of the babies! That’s a big problem. We need to eat the babies!”
Ocasio-Cortez responded by thanking the woman for her question.
“We need to treat the climate crisis with the urgency it does present,” the freshman congresswoman added.
“Luckily we have more than a few months. We do need to hit net zero in several years. But I think we all need to understand that there are a lot of solutions that we have and that we can pursue and that if we act in a positive way there is space for hope,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“We are never beyond hope.”
Many of Ocasio-Cortez’s critics on Twitter took note of the fact that the New York Democrat avoided pushing back on the notion of eating babies as a possible solution to climate change.
AOC “yeah that’s one way to go about it…but there are a few other options too?” lol her answer and stoic reaction is the story forget about the nutjob or putupjob whichever she was.
— Hammond politics (@hammondpolitics) October 4, 2019
“How hard is it to say “DON’T EAT BABIES, THAT IS NOT AN OPTION CRAZY LADY!” tweeted conservative Twitter personality Robby Starbuck.
Why didn’t Cortez say NO WE DON’T NEED TO EAT BABIES
— Christopher Romano (@cjdmromano) October 4, 2019
Other Twitter users suggested the woman was a GOP plant or mentally ill:
This seems like a plant. The fact that they actually had a “Eat the Children” T-Shirt made seems like the giveaway. I say this as someone who does not support the Green New Deal or AOC.
— Paul ?? (@freezelin) October 4, 2019
The aim of the town hall was to discuss Ocasio’Cortez’s ‘A Just Society’ legislation, which is aimed at reducing poverty, and increasing affordable housing and access to federal benefits.
Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter after video of the town hall confrontation went viral.
Via Pluralist
