Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) falsely accused Senate Republicans and the Trump administration of intentionally choosing to make millions of Americans lose their jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in China.

“Mass unemployment was a choice,” Ocasio-Cortez falsely claimed. “We did not need to lose 20 million jobs. We didn’t. We had options and the option that we chose was to do nothing, despite the fact that we could have done something to save millions of jobs in this country.”

“And so, our political leadership, starting right at the White House and paired right up there with Mitch McConnell, said, hmm, we could take bold action right now to guarantee people’s jobs and guarantee payroll in this country, or we can allow mass unemployment,” Ocasio-Cortez falsely claimed. “And what was allowed to happen, the thing that we chose, not we, but they, chose was mass unemployment and that is going to take years for us to recover from.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks are not true.

Republicans have repeatedly led on the issue of providing funding to Americans and American businesses that are struggling as a result of the pandemic only to be repeatedly blocked by Democrats.

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came after she faced backlash on Monday when she cheered the American oil industry being devastated by the pandemic, which has subsequently led to heavy job losses.

WATCH:

Ocasio-Cortez, after cheering American job losses, falsely claims the Trump admin and the Senate GOP intentionally “chose” to have millions of Americans lose their jobs This is a blatant lie The GOP tried to pass hundreds of billions in relief last week and Democrats blocked it pic.twitter.com/KpVLtRDKK0 — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 22, 2020

TRANSCRIPT:

Our political leadership chose mass employment and its very important for you all to know that. Mass unemployment was a choice. We did not need to lose 20 million jobs. We didn’t. We had options and the option that we chose was to do nothing, despite the fact that we could have done something to save millions of jobs in this country. And so, our political leadership, starting right at the White House and paired right up there with Mitch McConnell, said, hmm, we could take bold action right now to guarantee people’s jobs and guarantee payroll in this country, or we can allow mass unemployment. And what was allowed to happen, the thing that we chose, not we, but they, chose was mass unemployment and that is going to take years for us to recover from. Because even if we decided to reopen everything, let’s say I just waved a magic wand, snapped my fingers right now, and said, we’re all open. There are still going to be a lot of businesses that close because of the loses that have already been incurred that have not, you know, there is a lot of un, un, uncertainty around. There’s going to be a lot of people that can’t just walk right back into their jobs because either they got sick, they had to leave, they had to support their family in some other way, or its just very difficult to get that whole workforce to where they were. You can get large portions of it, but it’s going to take a long time for us to get back. It is! Which is why need to make sure that we make major moves so that your ability to have health insurance is not penned or dependent on your employment status. It doesn’t make any sense. United States only modern, wealthy, ‘developed’, nation in the world to have this kind of nonsensical system. And we have to wake up. We need to wake up.

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