Amid a flurry of critiques surrounding New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's announcement that Amazon would plant its new headquarters in Long Island City, Fox News decided to zero in on Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's comments on Twitter.On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter that her office had been getting calls from constituents in Queens who worried that the company's promise to bring jobs and economic growth to the city would ultimately result in their displacement. "The community's response?" she wrote. "Outrage.""Amazon is a billion-dollar company," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here."But in a Wednesday morning segment, Fox News host Stuart Varney reduced Ocasio-Cortez's concerns to those of a "young lady" who lacked the business savvy to see why the tech behemoth's arrival would be positive for the city.“The young lady does not understand growth," Varney said. "You’ve got to grow a business. She doesn’t understand growing a business. You’ve got to put money in to get money out."
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It's not the first time Ocasio-Cortez—the youngest woman to ever be elected to Congress—has had her views dismissed and belittled.Shortly after her historic primary upset over the summer, Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis called Ocasio-Cortez "that girl," insisting that her socialist views exposed her as clueless and ignorant."You look at this girl Ocasio-Cortez or whatever she is, I mean, she’s in a totally different universe,” DeSantis said in a video of the July speech, obtained by HuffPost. “It’s basically socialism wrapped in ignorance.“You’re just repeating these canned, left-wing talking points, and you’re somehow the savior of the Democratic Party?" he went on. "Good Lord. She has no clue what she’s talking about.”Fox News especially appears in equal measure daunted and perplexed by Ocasio-Cortez's—and democratic socialism's—rise within the Democratic Party. Tuesday night, Fox News aired a graphic of Ocasio-Cortez and fellow progressive Congresswomen-elect Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley alongside their "radical new Democratic ideas": "free college for all," "free health care for all," "abolish ICE," and the "Green New Deal.""Oh no!" Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Wednesday morning. "They discovered our vast conspiracy to take care of children and save the planet."