Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has lashed out at Donald Trump after he criticised her Green New Deal, suggesting he does not read enough to justify sending her notes on a proposal that she hopes will help counter climate change.
Mr Trump had attacked Ms Ocasio-Cortez during a controversy-hit campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, near the US border with Mexico.
“It sounds like a high school term paper that got a low mark,” Mr Trump said, referring to Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal unveiled last week that sets ambitious goals to combat global warming and dramatically restructure the US economy.
In response, the newly elected New York congresswoman suggested the president has a hard time with extended written material.
“Ah yes, a man who can’t even read briefings written in full sentences is providing literary criticism of a House Resolution”, Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet, before referencing reports from The Washington Post indicating Mr Trump tends to skip reading intelligence briefings in favor of oral reports.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s environmental resolution calls for massive American investment in renewable energy and green infrastructure to help curb carbon emissions.
It won backing from several leading 2020 Democratic candidates, suggesting climate change will a leading issue for the party in the upcoming presidential election.
The Green New Deal takes its name from a series of programmes enacted in the 1930s that restructured the American economy through major public work projects and financial reforms, and created the social security system.
Mr Trump has frequently questioned whether man-made climate change exists.
Over the weekend he again questioned how the world could be warming while it is snowing in some areas, following Democrat Amy Klobuchar’s announcement she would run against him next November – the Minnesota senator having delivered her speech outside during a snowstorm.
