Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Pete Buttigieg for adopting what she called a “GOP talking point” after the Democratic presidential candidate aired an ad criticizing calls for tuition-free public college as unrealistic.

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“I believe we should move to make college affordable for everyone,” the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said in the new ad campaign in Iowa, which a Politico reporter shared on Twitter. “There’s some voices saying, ‘That doesn’t count unless you go even further, unless it’s free even for the kids of millionaires.' But I only want to make promises that we can keep.”

Although Buttigieg doesn’t actually name them, the ad seemed to be a veiled swipe at Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, two of Buttigieg’s rivals for the Democratic nomination next year. Both progressive candidates have endorsed plans for tuition-free public college and eliminating student loan debt.

But Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Sanders for president last month, accused Buttigieg of echoing Republicans with his argument.

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“This is a GOP talking point used to dismantle public systems, & it’s sad to see a Dem candidate adopt it,” the New York Democrat wrote on Twitter. “Just like rich kids can attend public school, they should be able to attend tuition-free public college.”

Ocasio-Cortez went on to note that “universal public systems” are designed to benefit everyone -- pointing out that a number of the wealthy’s children go to private schools that aren’t covered by tuition-free public college under the policies backed by Warren and Sanders.

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“We don’t ban the rich from public schools, firefighters, or libraries bc they are public goods,” she added. “When you start carving people out & adding asterisks to who can benefit from goods that should be available to all, cracks in the system develop.”

Ocasio-Cortez, an influential voice in the Democratic Party, continued that it’s “GOOD” to have diverse classrooms with students from different economic backgrounds.

“Having students from different incomes & backgrounds in the same classroom is good for society & economic mobility,” she wrote.

But Buttigieg's campaign fired back on Friday, arguing that Buttigieg would make public college tuition-free for 80 percent of families while providing tuition assistance for the next 10 percent.

"If you think that a worker who didn’t go to college should pay for college for a CEO’s kid, then @PeteButtigieg isn’t your candidate," Buttigieg's senior adviser Lis Smith wrote on Twitter.

Under Buttigieg's $500 billion college affordability plan, public college would be tuition-free for households earning under $100,000 and inject $120 billion into federal Pell Grants.

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