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Ocasio-Cortez Gaslights 'Green New Deal'

Office deletes 'farting cows' document, adviser pretends it never existed

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / Getty Images
February 9, 2019

The office of democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has deleted a supplemental document explaining how to implement her "Green New Deal" that called for a jobs guarantee even for those "unwilling to work" and the elimination of "farting cows" and airplanes.

Robert Hockett, a Cornell law professor and adviser to Ocasio-Cortez, appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News on Friday and claimed Republicans doctored official documents that came directly from the congresswoman's office.

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Carlson asked Hockett about the Green New Deal guaranteeing "economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work."

"We never would and AOC has never said anything like that," Hockett said. "I think you're referring to some sort of document, some sort of doctored document that someone else has been circulating." (Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff says the document was part of an early draft that "got leaked." The document was not leaked, but published on Ocasio-Cortez's website.)

Hockett then accused Republicans of putting out misinformation about the plan.

"Apparently some Republicans have put it out there, I don't know the details," he said.

Hockett again deflected when Carlson asked him about the plan's goal of eliminating airplanes by building "high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary."

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"I don't know where you got that either," Hockett said. "Where's the airplane disappearance coming from?"

It comes from an official frequently-asked-questions document released by Ocasio-Cortez's office when the Green New Deal was released and was circulated by NPR. The document has since been deleted from Ocasio-Cortez's website. There are no longer any press releases or content on the Green New Deal on her media page—only a release on her swearing in earlier this year.

An archive of the page, however, clearly shows Ocasio-Cortez circulated the information that the Green New Deal would provide jobs for those "unwilling to work."

Matt Whitlock, a senior adviser to the NRSC, accused Ocasio-Cortez of "gaslighting" the public by pretending a document put out by her office never existed.

Ocasio-Cortez retweeted a researcher at the liberal Media Matters for America who said Hockett debunked "all the conservative media lies" on Fox News.

Ocasio-Cortez's 14-page resolution calls for the "economic transformation" of the United States through a "Green New Deal mobilization" that would phase the country off fossil fuels and nuclear energy in 10 years. Renewable energy accounts for just 17 percent of current electricity generation.

The deleted supplemental document explained the Green New Deal further, saying that the plan would "create economic prosperity" by planting "lots of trees." But Ocasio-Cortez's office was honest about the plans limitations to "fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes" in 10 years.

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"We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast, but we think we can ramp up renewable manufacturing and power production, retrofit every building in America, build the smart grid, overhaul transportation and agriculture, plant lots of trees and restore our ecosystem to get to net-zero," Ocasio-Cortez's office said.