Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

AOC claps back at Trump for mocking her education

‘Plenty of people without college degrees could run this country better than Trump ever has’ says AOC

Oliver O'Connell
New York
Tuesday 27 October 2020 11:05 EDT
Comments
Trump said AOC 'knew nothing about climate change'

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

At one of his three campaign rallies on Monday, Donald Trump reeled off yet another attack on New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — this time mocking her education.

Speaking at a stop in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Trump hit out at the progressive lawmaker in a meandering speech that took in climate change and green technology.

“A great student of the environment — I don’t think she ever took an environmental course in college,” the president said. “She did go to college, right?”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez graduated from Boston University with degrees in economics and international relations.

On Twitter she hit back at the president in a response to a tweet from the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman that quoted his remarks.

“I could say yes, but who cares? Plenty of people without college degrees could run this country better than Trump ever has,” she said.

“As much as GOP cry about ‘elites,’ they’re the ones who constantly mock food service workers, people w/o degrees, etc as dumb. It’s classist & disgusting,” she added.

Ironically, Trump had questioned her college attendance at a rally in which he hopes to boost turnout of non-college-educated voters.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez continued her response in a follow-up tweet, saying that she has hired people without college degrees whose work has been “incredible”.

“The more college costs soar, the more degrees become a measure [of] privilege than competence. Our country would be better off if we made public colleges tuition-free & cancelled student loan debt,” she said.

As one of the leading voices in Congress on climate change and introduced the set of policy proposals known as the Green New Deal, Ms Ocasio-Cortez is a favourite target of the president.

At the second presidential debate, Trump said that she and with her fellow “Squad” members Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, “know nothing about the climate” leading all four of them to clap back on Twitter.

Ms Pressley joked that they live “rent free” in his head.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in