Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took aim at a GOP lawmaker on Wednesday after the Kentucky congressman appeared to walk back his invitation for her to visit his district.
In a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez joked that “we’ve got ‘em on their back foot stutter-stepping” after Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) walked back his offer to host the congresswoman in his district to meet with families and discuss how her Green New Deal would affect residents of the state, stating that she should apologize for her comments about a Texas colleague before accepting his invitation.
Barr originally urged Ocasio-Cortez to visit his district and “go underground” in a coal mine with him to learn how the people who work there would have their jobs endangered by her call to shift the U.S. toward renewable energy.{mosads}
“I’d be happy to go to Kentucky, and I’d also like to note that in the Green New Deal, one of the things I advocate for is fully funding the pensions of coal miners in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia because we want a just transition to make sure that we’re investing in jobs across those swaths of the country,” Ocasio-Cortez responded at the time.
But Barr changed his tune after Ocasio-Cortez was involved in a Twitter spat with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) over Crenshaw’s refusal to support the 9/11 Victim’s Compensation Fund and his attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
“My invitation to you to come to Kentucky to learn how the Green New Deal could impact hard-working Americans in eastern and central Kentucky was in good faith with the expectation that you too were interested,” Barr wrote in a letter that was hand-delivered to her office.
“But your recent comments about Congressman Crenshaw demonstrate a lack of civility that is becoming far too common in the U.S. House of Representatives,” he added.
It’s unclear whether Ocasio-Cortez still plans to visit Barr’s district, as her office told The Hill on Tuesday that they were “still looking at it.”