Daily Caller co-founder and Fox News host Tucker Carlson called Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “a tool of the billionaire class” in Wednesday’s episode of the Daily Caller podcast “Vince and Jason Save the Nation”.
Carlson said the American system has “never wronged” Ocasio-Cortez but rather has benefitted her despite her alleged claims of being a victim of oppression. He said the New York representative is “doing the bidding of the billionaire class” by siding with Google and Facebook over small businesses despite touting her support for “black and brown people.”
“She’s completely absorbed this silly, ruling class liberalism saying ‘I’m for black and brown people,’ no! You [Ocasio-Cortez] are absolutely doing the bidding of the billionaire class,” Carlson said. “You are on the side of the powerful against the weak. Tell me she’s on the side of the oppressed and the weak, no, she’s a tool of the billionaire class, 100%.”
He said he supported her 2019 opposition to Amazon creating a campus in Long Island City, Queens. She received major backlash for the decision, with Jobs Creators Network saying that her opposition reportedly contributed to the loss of “25,000 jobs, $4 billion lost wages, and $12 billion in lost economic activity.”
The “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host said Americans struggling from joblessness and a surge in local homicides are the truly oppressed while Ocasio-Cortez is protected by security. (RELATED: Tucker Reveals What Changed His Position On Economics)
“Talk about the lowest of the low. Talk about people who actually are oppressed. All the jobs are gone from your town? I don’t care what color you are. You want to look for oppression it is right there,” Carlson continued. “She’s surrounded by bodyguards which we pay for. Then there’s people that live in crappy neighborhoods that are getting killed at higher numbers.”
The Fox News host also criticized Ocasio-Cortez for her alleged silence on the “half-a-million” people that have recently died from drug overdoses. Drug fatalities reached an all-time high in 2020 with more than 93,000 deaths, a 30% increase from the previous year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. The deaths were the highest number in a 12-month period since 1999.
U.S. cities witnessed a surge in violent crime throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021. New York City—Ocasio-Cortez’s district—experienced an overall crime rate of 22% in May 2021 compared to the previous year. However, the crime rate has been on a steady decline since the summer, with an 8.6% decrease in August compared to the same month in 2020, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).