critics are tearing into alexandria
ocasio-cortez on twitter for posting
pictures of her grandmother's
storm-ravaged home in puerto rico
instead of helping her the progressive
democrat tweeting her grandmother
recently fell ill
and that she visited her for the first
time in over a year because of covid
ocasio-cortez then blaming former
president trump
for her condition the new york
congresswoman whose salary is 174
thousand dollars a year paid by
taxpayers
is now getting hammered online here's a
sample
aoc my grandma can't fix her ceiling
without a washington bailout
also she's letting her abuela live in
squalor in puerto rico
and my favorite honey you drive a tesla
and have two apartments
if your grandmother is living poor
that's because you don't help her out
i'm surprised that a socialist wouldn't
redistribute that wealth to their
grandma
sad sean duffy i'll start with you on
this part of what was so shocking were
the visuals
of her apartment right so that's why the
public reacted so strongly especially in
comparison
to a tesla and two luxury apartments
yeah listen she's not uh without money
she doesn't have any kids she doesn't
have a spouse
174 000 for a single person is a lot of
money and so with socialists though
they'll have the government do what they
could do for themselves right so she
could give her money go help her grandma
out but social say no
no that's not my responsibility let the
government do it let government take
care of grandma
i want my tesla and i want my next
apartments i'm not going to help her
it's actually shameful
jenna is this criticism of her valid
well i want to be clear that the
criticism is only coming from a handful
of people and then we're creating space
for it in this particular conversation
sean how do you know that her
grandmother's not okay i'm pretty sure
she responded saying don't worry
my grandmother's totally taken care of
and just because she makes 174 thousand
dollars a year she can't
point out inequity and injustice
particularly
in our response to the greatest natural
disaster in american history taking the
lives of three thousand people
so anyone who's making more than a
hundred and seventy thousand dollars a
year can't talk about social inequities
how are you gonna then hold corporations
who don't pay any
taxes accountable on that if you can't
if you can't talk the talk i mean she's
surely walking the walk here
i don't i don't know why this is a
conversation when her grandmother's
doing just fine
and she's not helping anybody but
herself she's lighting herself up on
twitter she knew what those pictures
would be
come on we know 170. she would have
helped
other people but instead she didn't wait
hold on tiger
she's raised her hand to be a congress
person how are you
how could you possibly say that she's
she's not like sitting
happy on a beach somewhere taught you
know picking out her next version of the
tesla
so she don't know and agree a green car
you're right but you also don't know
that her grandmother isn't
totally taken care of we do have some
facts here like she has an apartment in
a luxury building in washington dc i
know the area
she pays 2500 she pays 2500
a month in reality a lot of americans
can't even afford that and the problem
you talk about you can't point out in
equity
of course not aoc why can't you point
out inequity if she makes 170 thousand
dollars yeah
it's my turn now aoc only points out
inequity when it's convenient to her
political talking point
and that is a fact because you recall
those pictures of her at the border
uh whining about how bad the conditions
were the squalor
where is she now when there are 13 year
old girls urinating in bags under
biden's watch and facilities that he has
set up where is aoc at the border
now she's at her grandmother's house
because she thinks that's convenient uh
right jenna and i'll let you take this
as well as part of the question that i
hear what you're saying about pointing
out in equities absolutely but it seems
like it's disproportionately placed on
the shoulders of the prior
administration so my question to you is
do
you see that there's there's a lack of
acceptance by the progressive left
on the burden that they share especially
in perpetuating the dependency cycle
that our tax dollars pay for that only
perpetuate
uh poverty frankly and the the um
disconnect especially of achievement
within these classes
emily i really appreciate that question
it's the smartest one
so far and to that i don't know
it's it's hard for me to not look at
social
programs as being a foundation for
the stability of this country be it
public schools be it
emergency rooms be it water filtration
systems be it
how is it that we're creating more
moments for people to be more civically
engaged
and i do sit further left on that and
believe
putting more resources into people's
basic human rights
is is more wise than creating tax cuts
for the wealthy
but i think that's the most existential
and smartest question
to date and one that we should spend
more time talking about and just a quick
little back on you jenna just a quick
respectful circling back
can you please answer whether you feel
that the progressive left
disproportionately blames the prior
administration for these inequities and
that there isn't sort of a measure of
taking responsibility
for the own impact their actions has
have
especially especially coming from the
saviorist mentality
of a lot of people in power
jenna no no
because i do think that the former
administration
pulled the rug out of a lot of social
based programming and i mean again
going back to it's conservative versus
you know more liberal financial policies
and that's how sort of the pendulum
swings
i do again sit on the side that i think
more social programming
is smarter for our people um so i would
say
probably not to that specific question
emily i hope i'm answering it
it's important to deal in facts not
platitudes and let's go through some
facts
on trump's watch lowest unemployment for
black americans and hispanic americans
in history biggest income games doubling
what they got
under obama for black americans for
hispanic americans the results are their
opportunity zones which were working
people were more empowered had more
access to this economy not their social
programs
but the ability to get a job in their
community
the facts bear that out so so the the
key part
um and sean i want to come to you real
quickly on this and let you take it home
the key part in all of that
is not these social programs that don't
lead to
employment because that was the thing i
mean that
once you get people that's what's
hurting us right now we've got to figure
out how to help people but also
get them back to work the economy needs
the uh the momentum
of people moving sean so here's we've
sent
hundreds of millions of dollars down to
puerto rico i'm someone who is an
advocate of puerto rico i don't have any
puerto ricans in my old district but i
care about puerto rico
and we gave the money now how that money
is distributed on the island is
something completely different and we
see a lot of fraud waste and abuse in
puerto rico
number one but number two aoc was
talking about her grandmother not the
island as a whole and if your
grandmother's ceiling
jenna is falling in well go fix it don't
buy the tesla
go help grandma out and you can still
send a tweet out as a
as the plate of the island but don't use
your mom or your grandmother as example
when you have cash
to help her and that's why everyone is
so outraged by the aoc tweet sean that's
a great point and
taking it take it from me as a former
federal attorney the more that you spend
the more opportunity there is for the
rampant fraud waste and abuse that
unfortunately we see everywhere
all right guys we have to move on
unfortunately