AOC calls Tucker Carlson a 'white supremacist sympathizer'

Savannah Behrmann | USA TODAY

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WASHINGTON – Rep. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Fox News' Tucker Carlson a "white supremacist sympathizer" on Wednesday following a segment on his show about her district where a guest claimed it was "gross" because of the number of non-citizens living there.

"Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Tuesday played a video that showed garbage littering the New York freshman's district and Carlson asked his guest, conservative writer and editor Seth Barron, "How can we take seriously anything she says about the environment when this is her congressional district? She should be ashamed of this."

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Barron then claimed that the reason Ocasio-Cortez's "district is actually one of the least American districts in the country" and continued that "it's occupied by relatively few American citizens" and rather that a "very high percentage of her district is, in fact, illegal aliens."

Barron continued that these undocumented immigrants produce a “lot of garbage that the landlords don't want thrown out normally” and there were many “illegal food vendors pouring their pig grease into the gutters.”

He did not provide evidence for these claims.

"I go back and forth on whether to go on Fox News," the congresswoman wrote, quote-tweeting a video of the segment, continuing that the principal reason she does not "is squaring the fact that the ad revenue from it bankrolls a white supremacist sympathizer to broadcast an hour-long production of unmitigated racism, without any accountability whatsoever."

I go back and forth on whether to go on Fox News.



The main reason I haven’t is squaring the fact that the ad revenue from it bankrolls a white supremacist sympathizer to broadcast an hour-long production of unmitigated racism, without any accountability whatsoever. https://t.co/Yn1XZ912f7 — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 11, 2019

"'Immigrants are dirty' is a lazy, tired, racist trope, she continued.

"Secondly, environmental injustice is a major motivation as to why we introduced and wrote the Green New Deal the way we did in the first place," Ocasio-Cortez stated, defending her sweeping environmental policy plan the host and guest had been discussing.

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Carlson is not a stranger to controversial segments on his show.

After a shooting in El Paso left 22 people dead and the suspect reportedly published an anti-Hispanic screed, Carlson said white supremacy is “not a real problem” in the United States.

“This is a hoax. Just like the Russia hoax, it’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power,” the Fox News host said.

Recently, the DNC Vice Chair appeared on Fox News with Blake Hemmer and asked, "Why the hell does Tucker Carlson still have a job here? The reality is this is someone who said white supremacy is a hoax and why does Fox allow him to still be here in the first place?"

Barron apologized via Twitter Wednesday, saying he "chose the words wrong" and he "didn't do justice to a complex issue" of housing for immigrants.

Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez