Ocasio-Cortez Draws Fire For Adviser’s False Claim About Green New Deal on Tucker Carlson
Last night, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson sparred with Robert Hockett, a Cornell professor and adviser to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Green New Deal and some of the claims in the initial FAQ her office had released.
Carlson picked up on one section in particular — which offered protections for those “unwilling to work” — and asked, “Why would we ever pay people who are ‘unwilling to work’?”
“We never would, right, and AOC has never said anything like that,” Hockett responded. “I think you’re referring to some sort of document that some – I think some doctored document that somebody other than us has been circulating.”
“I thought that came right from her. That was in the backgrounder from her office is my understanding,” Carlson responded.
Hockett insisted, pointing to the congresswoman’s tweet on false versions going around.
Later in the interview, Carlson returned to this issue and said, “The ‘unwilling to work’ thing was in her backgrounder. That has been absolutely confirmed.”
“No, definitely not. Definitely not,” Hockett said.
Carlson clarified, “So NBC and lots of other news outlets are saying that that was in the backgrounder and you’re saying it’s fraudulent.”
“That’s erroneous,” Hockett responded.
Carlson was citing the initial Green New Deal FAQ released by Ocasio-Cortez’s office which did have a line about guaranteeing “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work.”
Here’s an archived version of the now-deleted @AOC‘s House webpage with the #GreenNewDeal FAQ’s and the “guarantee” in all its glory: “It guarantees to everyone… Economic security to all who are… unwilling to work.”https://t.co/UlOtwgD3dT pic.twitter.com/qr29dzU2fV
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) February 8, 2019
The line is not in the text of the eventual resolution, but it was in that FAQ. The FAQ has since been taken down. In response to Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein remarking on Hockett saying the line that was in the FAQ was doctored, Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff said it was just a draft version that was taken down:
Incredibly strange dynamic rn. A zillion outlets have run w/ GND = mystery FAQ sheet, which includes things like $ for those “unwilling to work”
But thats not in the plan the Senators signed off on. Now AOC is retweeting her adviser telling Fox the sheet is itself not theirs pic.twitter.com/1Fcw2PvsIM
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 9, 2019
It certainly *looks* as if the document below came from AOC’s office
AOC adviser, in clip rted by AOC, to Fox: “You’re referring to some I think doctored document that someone other than us has been circulating”
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 9, 2019
There are multiple doctored GND resolutions and FAQs floating around. There was also a draft version that got uploaded + taken down. There’s also draft versions floating out there.
Point is, the real one is our submitted resolution, H.Res. 109: https://t.co/ZlgWmNQn57
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 9, 2019
Full text here: https://t.co/sZ3340nJ6d
When I talk about the GND, this is what I’m referring to – nothing else. pic.twitter.com/N7cqZOvtaa
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 9, 2019
Regarding all the errant FAQ, TLDR is to read the resolution to see what people actually signed on to. https://t.co/cfeJKPaX3B. https://t.co/XRZsTOhkoQ
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 9, 2019
We did this in collaboration with a bunch of groups and offices over the course of the last month. As a part of that process, there were multiple iterations, brainstorming docs, FAQs, etc. that we shared. Some of these early drafts got leaked.
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 9, 2019
There separately IS a doctored FAQ floating around. And an early draft of a FAQ that was clearly unfinished and that doesn’t represent the GND resolution got published to the website by mistake (idea was to wait for launch, monitor q’s, and rewrite that FAQ before publishing).
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 9, 2019
Mistakes happen when doing time launches like this coordinating multiple groups and collaborators. It’s hard to have both a transparent and open process with many stakeholders while keeping all info locked down. But what’s in the resolution is the GND.
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 9, 2019
It was a longer sentence originally talking, essentially, about social security after retirement age. We reworded it to say ‘retirement security’ above it and forgot to take that sentence out.
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 9, 2019
The clip of Hockett’s denial to Carlson was retweeted by Ocasio-Cortez:
Prior to Ocasio-Cortez herself addressing the pulled FAQ on Twitter, Axios’ Jonathan Swan fired back at Hockett and her retweet by noting Carlson was just reading from that initial draft FAQ:
The document Tucker reads from is not “doctored” by bad actors, as this guest claims, and @AOC retweets. He’s reading what was originally published on @AOC’s official website. https://t.co/y4Q1XD6FzA
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) February 9, 2019
I deleted it because I was wrong. Axios only wrote stories based on the resolution text. But yes it is true that her adviser misleads Tucker by claiming it was doctored. See my other tweet.
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) February 9, 2019
The Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel tweeted that a number of reporters received that initial FAQ:
There’s the legislation and there’s the FAQ. The legislation has cosponsors; the FAQ was just from AOC office.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 9, 2019
Other reporters called out Hockett over his false claim in the viral clip:
Holy crap! This guy straight up lies! @AOC absolutely had the “unwilling to work” provision on her https://t.co/Q4YEUbndSm website and I linked to the Wayback Machine version of it here:https://t.co/CF8bG7zUii https://t.co/DbYZ12uOep
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) February 9, 2019
https://t.co/AQ1quomb7L https://t.co/ip0WFGqZSM
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 9, 2019
But @AOC‘s advisor is wrong here. The FAQ does include the phrase “Economic security for all who are unable or *unwilling* to
work.” See here: https://t.co/o1ipYRZmfC https://t.co/VlAq7wEOe5— Colby Hall (@colbyhall) February 9, 2019
Tonight AOC’s policy adviser used these idiots’ garbage prank to lie about the actual contents of the green new deal. Well done guys https://t.co/6W7mWywpbB
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) February 9, 2019
This is ACTUAL gaslighting! Hockett says that the Green New Deal did not include “economic security for all those unable or unwilling to work,” that this was in a “doctored document.”
That was in the FAQ posted on @AOC’s website!
And AOC RT’d this vid!https://t.co/VxdGyMqsN5 https://t.co/OFUSfSq8Wg
— Emily Larsen (@emilyelarsen) February 9, 2019
And after all that, a new report from Hasson and Larsen at the Daily Caller includes Hockett acknowledging he was wrong in a statement:
“It appears there was more than one document being discussed yesterday, only one of which I had heard about with any definiteness by last evening after a long day of media appearances – namely, the one referred to by the Congresswoman in her tweet. I regret that we seem unknowingly to have ended up speaking about different documents for a minute during our longer and otherwise ‘on-the-same-page’ conversation last night.”
For anyone following, multiple people were talking about multiple documents yesterday, sometimes not realizing either (a) that there were so many, or (b) that they therefore were talking about different things. Might we now turn to the actual Resolution? It’s kinda important. https://t.co/kaGtfZEcA5
— Robert Hockett (@rch371) February 9, 2019
[image via screengrab]
