Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Florida Republican Mix It Up On Twitter Over Green New Deal

Amid resurging interest in her Green New Deal resolution due to a national Sunrise Movement campaign and financial support from a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit to promote grassroots organizing, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mixed it up in the Twittersphere on Monday with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) after he lumped his criticism of the initiative into a tweet opposing gun control.

Scott was originally attacking a sweeping proposal by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey to curb gun violence, saying Booker’s proposal to include a federal registry for gun owners was a "terrible idea" and it would be "scary if Booker had any chance of becoming President."

He then tossed in a barb at Ocasio-Cortez regarding the Green New Deal.

The freshman representative was quick to reply, suggesting Scott was an embarrassment to the legislative institution for his apparent lack of capacity for critical thinking. Ocasio-Cortez also pointed out if Scott were a woman a number of other disparaging labels might have been used.

Scott shot back he was only being sarcastic and that it also was an embarrassment that a sitting representative was unable to detect his sarcasm.

Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced H.R. 109 in February, which calls for the U.S. to eliminate its carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, has been a shaming darling for conservatives who say her proposal is unrealistic and would devastate the U.S. economy. Ocasio-Cortez, on the other hand, has characterized the Green New Deal as this generation’s Moon shot, referencing John F. Kennedy’s bold plan to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

House resolutions are nonbinding and are not law. They are more blueprints for future legislation. What is interesting about the ongoing debate over the Green New Deal is positions for or against are largely generational, with younger Americans on both sides of the political binary favoring the plan, according to an op-ed by a Harvard professor and research assistant in the Atlantic.

Scott has been critical of the Green New Deal in the past. Along with similar comments from President Trump and Rep. Lynn Cheney (R-WY), Scott said in an Orlando Sentinel op-ed in February that the Green New Deal aimed to completely end air travel, which is false, according to the fact-checking site Snopes.com.

Ocasio-Cortez on Monday announced she would attend a rally by the Sunrise Movement in support of the Green New Deal at Howard University in Washington, D.C., next week. On the same day, Wallace Global Fund announced it was giving $1 million to the Sunrise Movement and partner organizations to advance the goals of the Green New Deal.