News

AOC’s Sick Grandma Isn’t Off-Limits for MTG and Lauren Boebert

Rep. Lauren Boebert cranked a minor Twitter spat with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez up to 11 on Sunday.
021/06/05: U. S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at the rally where she endorsed progressive candidates in upcoming election for city wide offices in City Hall Park. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
021/06/05: U. S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at the rally where she endorsed progressive candidates in upcoming election for city wide offices in City Hall Park. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.

Rep. Lauren Boebert cranked a minor Twitter spat with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to 11 on Sunday, using the Democratic congresswoman’s sick grandmother as fodder for retweets.

The spat started when Ocasio-Cortez shared a clip of Boebert’s caricature-esque performance at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend. “We’re here to tell government ‘We don’t want your benefits, we don’t want your welfare, don’t come knockin’ on my door with your Fauci ouchie,” Boebert said, pacing the stage. “Leave us the hell alone!”

Advertisement

“Tell ‘em loud and proud girl!” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “GOP will strip your unemployment protections and dismantle any semblance of a public safety net we have left! Then make working people pay way more for everything on low wages while Wall St gets a meal ticket!”

Boebert then escalated the fight to another level. “Oh please, Sandy. Ask Abuela how that government reliance is going,” Boebert responded, adding that as a child she “stood in line for bread and government cheese. I want more for your grandma, just as I did for me.”

The tweet was a reference to a post Ocasio-Cortez made more than a month ago after her grandmother became sick and the congresswoman went to Puerto Rico to visit her. After the trip, Ocasio-Cortez shared a picture of her grandmother’s home, which still has extensive damage Ocasio-Cortez attributed to Hurricane Maria and a lack of federal government support. 

After Ocasio-Cortez shared a picture, some on the right flamed her, with a conservative commentator launching a GoFundMe to mock Ocasio-Cortez’s grandmother. Although Ocasio-Cortez said her grandmother was “okay” and that Ocasio-Cortez was “caring” for her, the fundraiser made over $104,000 before the crowdfunding site shut it down, telling the New York Post that “the beneficiary has made clear to our Trust and Safety team they do not wish to accept the donations.”

Advertisement

Ocasio-Cortez shot back to Boebert: “Thank you for proving to the world that today’s version of ‘conservative role model’ is a person who mocks other people’s ill grandparents on the internet.” Boebert responded by accusing Ocasio-Cortez of blocking the GoFundMe, and said: “If that’s how you take care of your family, I can see why they’d rely on the government.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Boebert’s fellow freshman crank, joined in and mocked Ocasio-Cortez and said she was “back in therapy saying how she feels threatened by truth.” Greene, who heckled Ocasio-Cortez on the House floor in May, can’t stop comparing efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic to the Holocaust.

Boebert’s attack on vaccines was on theme during the three-day CPAC conference in Dallas, the second CPAC conference held this year. On Saturday, some in the crowd cheered at the country missing the Biden administration’s vaccination goal—even as the Delta variant has rapidly become dominant in the U.S. and driven an uptick of cases in places with low vaccination rates

“It's horrifying,” Fauci said during an appearance at CNN Sunday. “I mean, they are cheering about someone saying that it's a good thing for people not to try and save their lives.”