If you ever think the left is completely detached of reality, recent empirical evidence from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" seems to support your thinking. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's policy adviser joined Tucker Carlson last night to discuss specifics of her Green New Deal. When asked about peculiarities in documents surrounding said deal, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's adviser Robert Hockett pretended those statements did not exist, a lie later seemingly endorsed by the congresswoman herself.
Media Matters for America's Andrew Lawrence tweeted the Hockett/Carlson exchange, saying, "Watch what happens when Tucker Carlson steps out of the conservative bubble and brings on an @AOC policy adviser who debunks all the conservative media lies straight to his face."
Watch what happens when Tucker Carlson steps out of the conservative bubble and brings on an @AOC policy adviser who debunks all the conservative media lies straight to his face (spoiler: it doesn't go great for Tucker) pic.twitter.com/joDNXBBB7G
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 9, 2019
In the clip Carlson, the founder of the Daily Caller and Daily Caller News Foundation, asked Hockett for more detail about statements in the Green New Deal proposal regarding economic security for people who are "unwilling to work."
Hockett then asserted that "AOC has never said anything like that. I think you're referring to some sort of documents, I think some doctored documents, that somebody other than us has been circulating."
"Oh, I thought that came right from, I thought that was in the backgrounder from her office, as I understand," Carlson responded clearly perplexed.
"No, no," Hockett said shaking his head. "She tweeted it out to laugh at it. If you look at her latest tweets, it seems that some, apparently Republicans, have put it out there. I don't know the details."
"Ok, well then good, thank you for correcting me," Carlson said. "Because I mean, it seemed a little ridiculous," he added with a laugh.
Hockett also explained that other oddities in Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's plan such as eliminating the need for air travel were just misunderstood. Hockett said that the Green New Deal does not intend to ban airplanes, but to provide other viable alternatives which would make air travel wholly unnecessary for the continental United States.
But, Carlson's belief that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez did mention those "unwilling to work" was not wrong at all. In fact, it was Lawrence who was confused. Her initial backgrounder did mention those job averse people. Numerous conservatives on Twitter pointed this out.
Holy crap! This guy straight up lies! @AOC absolutely had the "unwilling to work" provision on her https://t.co/Q4YEUbndSm website and I linked to the Wayback Machine version of it here:https://t.co/CF8bG7zUii https://t.co/DbYZ12uOep
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) February 9, 2019
This is ACTUAL gaslighting! Hockett says that the Green New Deal did not include “economic security for all those unable or unwilling to work,” that this was in a "doctored document."
— Emily Larsen (@emilyelarsen) February 9, 2019
That was in the FAQ posted on @AOC’s website!
And AOC RT'd this vid!https://t.co/VxdGyMqsN5 https://t.co/OFUSfSq8Wg
But perhaps this article's headline is a bit wrong, suppose that Hockett was actually just unaware of that line due and thinking of an actual prank document circulating the web. Maybe then Hockett did not intend to lie to Carlson. Why would MMFA's Andrew Lawrence still tweet out the clip saying AOC's team "debunked all the conservative media lies"? As classical liberal Dave Rubin says, it is because Media Matters' "whole organization is a dumpster fire."
This is a total lie by a Media Matters researcher. The whole organization is a dumpster fire. The unwilling to work line was in the document.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) February 9, 2019
Here is the original document:https://t.co/ggNX7P3Wub
Here’s an article about it: https://t.co/ko0VhLzJgy https://t.co/KiUq3ftoXo
But, why would Rep. Ocasio-Cortez retweet Lawrence as if to support his belief Carlson had been proven incorrect. At best, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and her team simply are not on the same page and she is unaware herself what the actual information put out said. At worst, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and her team are lying to the American people.