Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reprimanded a crowd for calling a former Republican congressman a 'moron'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has gained a reputation as the Republican Party's newest archrival, but the freshman congresswoman reached across the aisle on Friday evening. Just not on policy matters.

During a town hall that aired on MSNBC, Ocasio-Cortez and former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) discussed the Green New Deal, a bill Ocasio-Cortez introduced earlier this year which is geared toward eliminating carbon emissions in the United States, but was voted down by the Senate last Tuesday. After Inglis expressed reservations about the proposed bill due to its sweeping nature, which he believes will make it "impossible" to get passed all at once, the crowd got a tad riled up. One person in the audience called Inglis a "moron." That apparently crossed the line for Ocasio-Cortez, who quieted the crowd and called the name-calling unacceptable.

"That's the difference between me and Trump," she said.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

While Ocasio-Cortez seemed to get along well with Inglis, she did take her shots at the Repubican senators who voted against the proposal last week, especially those who turned the deal into a spectacle.

"I didn't expect them to make total fools of themselves," she said during the town hall. "Frankly, I expected a little more nuance and I expected a little more concern-trolling."