Tucker Carlson called Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) a “moron” and “awful” on Monday’s broadcast of his Fox News show.
But the host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” then went on, in the very same segment, to praise the New York lawmaker for her “fairly insightful critique of the American economy.”
It’s at least the second time the right-wing commentator has agreed with the progressive freshman on policy. He backed her opposition to local tax incentives for Amazon’s new headquarters in November.
“So it’s official. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a moron and nasty and more self-righteous than any televangelist who ever preached a sermon on cable access. She’s not impressive, she’s awful,” said Carlson, as he dissected Ocasio-Cortez’s Friday appearance at MSNBC’s town hall on her Green New Deal policy proposal.
But “not everything she says in wrong,” Carlson said, as he aired footage of Ocasio-Cortez railing against “runaway income inequality” and the increasing financialization of the U.S. economy.
“OK, you hate to admit it, given the source, but try to ignore the way she said it,” said Carlson.
He continued:
Maybe just print it out and read it. A lot of it’s basically true. Neither party wants to talk about this. The Republicans are in fetal position, they just don’t want to be unpopular anymore, they’ll do anything not to be unpopular. The Democrats want what they’ve always wanted, total and complete control over you and this country. Neither party will say that our economy at its core is badly distorted.
Carlson concluded that Ocasio-Cortez isn’t “impressive,” but acknowledged “she is one of the very few people who will say the obvious about growing corporate tyranny in this country.”
At the town hall, Ocasio-Cortez shut down a heckler who called former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) a “moron.” “Hey, hey, hey, hey that’s unacceptable. And that’s the difference between me and Trump,” she said.
She responded to Carlson’s comments on Twitter Tuesday morning:
In the same segment, Carlson said MSNBC host Chris Hayes (who hosted the town hall) “is what every man would be if feminists ever achieved absolute power in this country: apologetic, bespectacled, and deeply, deeply concerned about global warming and the patriarchal systems that cause it.”
Check out the clip here:
This article has been updated with Ocasio-Cortez’s response.