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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
National
Chris Sommerfeldt

Billboard in Times Square blames Ocasio-Cortez for Amazon's NYC pullout

NEW YORK _ Conservatives are pointing fingers at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez again.

The Bronx-born congresswoman _ who has drawn right-wing ire for everything from dancing too well to proposing a tax increase on the ultrawealthy _ faced a Times Square billboard Wednesday blaming her for Amazon scrapping its plans to build new headquarters in Queens.

"Thanks For Nothing, AOC!" reads the sign put up on the corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue by Job Creators Network, a conservative advocacy group with close ties to the powerful Mercer family.

The billboard claims the "Amazon pullout" resulted in $4 billion in lost wages, 25,000 lost jobs and $12 billion in "lost economic activity" for the five boroughs.

The job and wage figures have been raised by other proponents of Amazon's canceled Long Island City development, but the source for the alleged "economic activity" dent is unclear.

A spokesman for the right-wing group did not return a request for comment.

Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment via a spokesman, who referred to the democratic socialist's Twitter feed.

The 29-year-old left-wing firebrand celebrated Amazon's pullout, arguing the state was offering the retail behemoth outsized tax breaks without much benefit for working class New Yorkers.

"This deal wasn't a simple tax break. It was $3 BILLION dollars," she tweeted after Amazon officially canceled its plans last Thursday. "When the community wanted to negotiate, Amazon said 'all or nothing.' They bailed when they didn't get 100 percent of what they wanted."

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