Patterico's Pontifications

2/9/2019

AOC Adviser Lies About Green New Deal FAQ Sheet, Blames Republicans For Doctoring Document (UPDATE ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 12:08 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Well, this is dumb.

Two days ago I posted about the Green New Deal, and in the post I included excerpts transcribed from the Green New Deal FAQ via Alexendria Ocasio-Cortez’s website (and is still in the cloud), which is now a dead link. I also loaded a copy from NPR’s website, as did any number of bloggers writing about the launch.

With that, there is an interesting clip from Tucker Carlson’s show about the document. One of Carlson’s guests was Robert Hockett, a Cornell public policy and law professor and adviser to Ocasio-Cortez. In the exchange, Carlson asks Hockett about a specific guarantee made in the New Green Deal FAQ which states Building on FDR’s Second Bill of Rights by guaranteeing: Economic Security for all who are unable or unwilling to work. In the clip, Hockett claims that the FAQ released on Ocasio-Cortez’s website never said that. It did.

Here is the clip of Hockett making the false claim via a snarky tweet from Andrew Lawrence of Media Matters:

Carlson: How will we ever pay people who are, quote, unwilling to work?

Hockett: We never would, right? And AOC has never said anything like that, right? I think you’re referring to some sort of document – I think some sort of doctored document that somebody other than us has been circulating.

Carlson: Oh, I thought that came right from her – that was in the backgrounder from her office is my understanding.

Hockett: No, no. She’s actually tweeted it out to laugh at, if you look at her latest tweets. It seems apparently some Republicans have put it out there. I don’t know the details.

AOC also retweeted Andrew Lawrence’s tweet and clip of Carlson and Hockett on her official Twitter page:

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Except, the problem is Hockett is wrong. The original FAQ clearly made the claim of a guarantee of economic security for anyone unwilling to work. Jeryl Bier, who never seems to miss a beat, has a screenshot of the original document saved from AOC’s own website:

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And here is the archived version,

Moreover, here is a snapshot of it linked by NPR’s website, which clearly includes the debated guarantee:

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NPR clarifies that an updated FAQ was released by AOC’s office, and if you hit the link, the updated version also includes a guarantee of economic security to anyone…unwilling to work:

In addition, the framework, as described in the legislation as well as a blog post — containing an updated version of “FAQs” provided to NPR by Ocasio-Cortez’s office — calls for a variety of other lofty goals.

CNBC reported on the guarantee as well:

The Green New Deal that Democrats proposed Thursday looks to create a more environmentally sound country with economic benefits for everyone — even those who don’t want to work.

An overview circulated by proponents states the plan seeks a “massive transformation of our society” that could rid the country of fossil fuels and “create millions of family supporting-wage [sic] union jobs.”

But for those not interested in working, there’s something in the plan as well.

The overview notes that the Green New Deal aims to provide “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work.”

Jonathan Chait wrote in NY Mag:

The operating principle behind the Green New Deal is a no-enemies-to-the-left spirit of fostering unity among every faction of the progressive movement. Thus, at the same time, the plan avoids taking stances that are absolutely vital to reduce carbon emissions, it embraces policies that have nothing to do with climate change whatsoever. The Green New Deal includes the following non-climate provisions:

–A job with family-sustaining wages, family and medical leave, vacations, and retirement security

–High-quality education, including higher education and trade schools

–High-quality health care

–Safe, affordable, adequate housing

–An economic environment free of monopolies

–Economic security to all who are unable or unwilling to work

And finally, from from the Heartland Institute, GREEN NEW DEAL: FACT SHEET AND FAQ FROM REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ AND SEN. EDWARD MARKEY:

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Via Jerry Dunleavy, here is AOC’s Chief of Staff explaining that “mistakes were made”:

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Dunleavy follows up by asking the correct question:

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Sure, mistakes happen, but Hockett literally claimed that AOC never said that anyone unwilling to work would be guaranteed economic security, and that the document in question had been doctored by Republicans. And that, according to AOC’s own Chief of Staff, is a lie. And yet AOC herself tweeted out the lie. It seems to me, if we can’t trust the people that AOC is being advised by, how can we trust AOC? AOC should apologize for disseminating false information, and Hockett should apologize for lying and making a false accusation about Republicans.

Q: Why didn’t Tucker Carlson have his ducks in a row so he could confront Hockett with his lie??

UPDATE: The Daily Caller reports that Robert Hockett acknowledged his error this afternoon:

“It appears there was more than one document being discussed yesterday, only one of which I had heard about with any definiteness by last evening after a long day of media appearances – namely, the one referred to by the Congresswoman in her tweet,” he wrote. “I regret that we seem unknowingly to have ended up speaking about different documents for a minute during our longer and otherwise ‘on-the-same-page’ conversation last night.”

I would like to see an apology specifically addressed to Republicans, since they are the ones falsely accused of doctoring a document and then intentionally disseminating it for less than honorable purposes. It’s not that Republicans necessarily need an apology, but because Republicans step in their own piles of crap enough on their own, it would be nice to have it on record that this was not of their making, as Hockett claimed. And it would be good for Hockett to make a public apology to Republicans, since he publicly named and blamed them.

Further, it’s unfortunate that Andrew Lawrence, Sr. Researcher at Media Matters still has his misleading tweet up on his Twitter page. But hey, Media Matters… He did, however, retweet this from Hockett:

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Also, this afternoon, after having re-tweeted Andrew Lawrence’s misleading tweet, AOC tweeted:

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(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana


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