An outlandish interruption at a town hall event for representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s constituents was revealed to be the work of a pro-Trump conspiracy theory group.

On Thursday night, the representative was questioned in her Queens, New York town hall by a woman who purported to be worried about the climate crisis. But the unidentified woman’s questions took a bizarre turn when she suggested people should eat children.

“Even if we would bomb Russia, we still have too many people, too much pollution, so we have to get rid of the babies,” the woman said. “Just stopping having babies is not enough; we need to eat the babies.”

On Twitter shortly after the town hall ended, Ms Ocasio-Cortez alluded to the woman’s questioning, urging people to “be decent” as the woman could be suffering from mental illness.

But after footage of the woman made the rounds, Matthew Sweet, a historian, claimed that the woman was part of a “bizarre political cult once led by Lyndon LaRouche.” Mr Sweet has published a book on the group, called Operation Chaos, and considers himself an expert.

Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Show all 8 1 /8 Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Flag waves but there is no wind on the moon The theory goes that as the flag is waving in the wind, it must have been on earth as there is no wind on the moon. If it were on the moon it would simply droop. The truth is that it is not waving, rather it is being held in place by a telescopic pole running through the top of the flag and it is crumpled as it had been screwed up for days en route to the moon Nasa Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Boot doesn't match the boot print It is suggested that this picture of a boot print on the moon is fake because it does not line up with the tread of this boot from Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit. That’s right, it doesn’t NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Boot doesn’t match the boot print The print does however match that of the outer boots, the ones worn by the Apollo crew when walking on the moon. And while we’re at it: the print is from Buzz Aldrin, not Armstrong. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories No stars in outer space? Why are there no stars in sight when this picture was taken on a rock in outer space that has no atmosphere? Answer: camera settings. In order to capture this photo in direct sunlight, the camera would have to have a very narrow aperture and the shutter would only stay open for a minuscule amount of time. This means that the camera will not take in the light of the distant stars, only that of the much nearer, brighter sun. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Astronauts couldn’t survive the radiation belts The Van Allen belts are regions of extremely high energy charged particles are trapped in the earth’s magnetic field. The conspiracy theory goes that the astronauts could not possibly survive exposure to this level of radiation. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Astronauts couldn’t survive the radiation belts Professor Anu Ojha of the National Space Centre answers: ‘Firewalking. If you’ve ever done firewalking, you’ll know the one thing you don’t do is linger around in the middle of the firepit. You cross as quickly as you can... as long as you walk across quite quickly, looking at the thermal conductivity of your feet, you are not going to have enough thermal energy going into the soles of your feet to burn you. You’re absolutely fine. Just don’t hang around in the middle! In a similar way, the transit time through the Van Allen radiation belt right at the beginning of the Apollo voyages was incredibly short. Travelling through the Van Allen radiation belt if you are going fast enough – which you need to be if you’re going to the Moon – is no problem whatsoever.’ AFP/Getty Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Shadows aren’t parallel - must be a lighting set-up These two shadows are pointing in separate directions, hence they must be lit by two separate lights in a studio set-up rather than the single-point source of the sun. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Shadows aren’t parallel - must be a lighting set-up No, this is simply a matter of perspective. The moon’s surface is not flat and so the shadows are not projected perfectly parallel. This question would have never been asked if we could see the beginning of the shadows, which would all align with the same vanishing point. NASA

“The LaRouche group was once a fairly ordinary revolutionary Marxist group,” Mr Sweet wrote. In the early days Bernie Sanders subscribed to their literature. Then came the great Brainwashing Affair of 1974, when members were convinced they had been programmed to kill by the CIA.”

Known now as the LaRouche Pac, the group essentially creates “chaos” in order to halt focus, according to Mr Sweet’s tweets. He noted that they’ve veered from all around conspiracy-spreading to being vehement supporters of Donald Trump, adding that “Putin is their first love.”

The group itself later confirmed on Twitter that they were behind the stunt.

The revelation is a blow to Republicans eager to make Ms Ocasio-Cortez and others concerned about the climate crisis look unnecessarily upset, including the president and his son.

After Don Jr tweeted out video of the incident, the president quote-tweeted his son, writing “AOC is a wack job!”

These tweets were sent before the stunt was revealed to be the work of the president’s own supporters.