August 10, 2018

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Not Here for Insulting, Bad-Faith Invites to “Debate”

Preach.

G. Ronald Lopez/ZUMA

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had quite a busy summer in the two months since her stunning victory against 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s Democratic primary, stumping for Democratic candidates across the country.

Along with her new national profile has come an onslaught of conservative criticism portraying the 28-year-old, who is likely to become the youngest women ever elected to Congress, as naive and uninformed, in addition to being a terrifying preview of a socialist takeover of the Democratic Party. This week, conservative writer Ben Shapiro, who runs the Daily Wire, publicly challenged Ocasio-Cortez to a debate.

“Miss Ocasio-Cortez, I’m really excited that you’ve been elevated to that position and I would love to have a real conversation with you about the issues,” Shapiro said in a video message. In an insulting move, he even offered to contribute $10,000 to her campaign if she acquiesced. 

“Not only am I eager to discuss the issues with you, I’m willing to offer $10,000 to your campaign today for you to come on our Sunday special.”

On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez responded by explaining the insulting and sexist nature of Shapiro’s invite.

Naturally, conservatives were not thrilled:

https://twitter.com/NoahPollak/status/1027740637607546881

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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