Why is Fox News so scared of Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal? Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee have some ideas.

(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Daily Show, Full Frontal)

By Peter Weber, The Week US

published 14 February 2019

Who's afraid of the Green New Deal? The Daily Show knows.

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The Green New Deal, "introduced by Republicans' wet nightmare Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," is "very ambitious," Samantha Bee said on Wednesday's Full Frontal. It "proposes making America carbon-neutral by 2030, overhauling transportation systems, implementing a universal jobs program," and other tenets (real and NSFW-imaginary.) But the idea behind it shouldn't be controversial, she said. "An overwhelming number of experts agree we only have about 12 years to stop climate change from devastating our planet," and "'It's too expensive and too hard' isn't a reason not to save the world, it's a reason not to have a destination wedding."

Still, even though the Green New Deal is "just a nonbinding resolution, the right is already delightedly inventing a future eco-dystopia," Bee said. "As usual, the loudest criticism is coming from Fox News."

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Yes, Fox News treats Ocasio-Cortez like "what would happen if Stalin was good at Instagram," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show. But the Green New Deal really does contain "a lot of major issues for a climate change plan to solve. ... Apparently it's also going to give everyone a job, and health care, and free education, and provide affordable housing, and get your parents back together?"

Most of the plan tackles climate change, though, and "Ocasio-Cortez is right that the U.S. needs to take drastic measures to prevent climate change's worst effects," Noah said. "Of course, over at Fox News, as soon as they heard 'Cortez' and 'climate change,' sirens started going off like bin Laden just emerged from the ocean carrying Aquaman's trident. ... There are enough real questions about the Green New Deal for conservatives to take issue with, but I guess it's more fun to scare America into thinking it's about to become a vegan North Korea." Since there's "clearly a generation divide" on the Green New Deal, Noah asked Senior Youth Correspondent Jaboukie Young-White for his thoghts. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.