A Democratic New York state lawmaker ripped into her fellow progressive and her congresswoman, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter Sunday for being “absent” in her home district, after a medical student also called out the “squad” member for her “performative” display at a recent Supreme Court protest.
The public online spat began when a medical student named Daniel, who identifies as a “health activist” on Twitter, alleged that Ocasio-Cortez’s office called off a meeting with “highly respected health policy academics” who wanted to discuss a socialized medicine plan similar to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS).
The student wrote in a Thursday tweet that the academics were “told bluntly by AOC’s staff, ‘we’re not doing healthcare right now.’”
“So, while she’s doing performative resistance art for the cameras she’s ‘not doing healthcare right now,” he added, referring to the congresswoman’s recent arrest at a pro-abortion rally outside of the Supreme Court, where she was recorded holding her wrists behind her back while being led away by a police officer, when she was not actually handcuffed. “We are in the middle of two pandemics & people are still dying because they lack healthcare. this is not fighting.”
Ocasio-Cortez responded Sunday to his initial tweet with an apology, offering to talk via direct message.