Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezâs abuela just canât get a break.
Just Tuesday, the New York Democrat informed us that her grandmother had been living in squalor in Puerto Rico after her house was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Apparently, her granddaughter wasnât willing to help her rebuild her roof, but was more than willing to post pictures of the conditions it was in. Then, when the Daily Wireâs Matt Walsh called AOC out on it, the congresswoman said that her abuela was fine and that Walsh didnât understand the roles that a first-generation, first-born daughter plays in an immigrant family.
If the cultural roles meant that her grandmother couldnât accept money from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, fine â Walsh would put together a GoFundMe campaign so that others chip in to fix the roof. Conservatives raised over $100,000 for the cause, well more than the $48,990 goal.
And then GoFundMe shut it down.
Walsh tweeted Saturday that, since Ocasio-Cortezâs family had apparently told the crowdfunding platform it wouldnât be accepting the money, the fundraiser was being paused.
âUPDATE: âsomeoneâ in AOCâs abuelaâs family told GoFundMe that she wonât take the money, even though AOC previously claimed that her grandma was in dire straits (and it was Trumpâs fault),â Walsh tweeted.
â@AOC still hasnât acknowledged this effort or thanked us. Hereâs the email from GoFundMe.â
Just a reminder of how we got here: On Tuesday, AOC posted pictures of her grandmotherâs home for the purposes of blaming, in part, former President Donald Trump for the mess.
âJust over a week ago, my abuela fell ill. I went to Puerto Rico to see her- my 1st time in a year+ bc of COVID. This is her home. Hurricane MarĂa relief hasnât arrived. Trump blocked relief $ for PR. People are being forced to flee ancestral homes, & developers are taking them,â Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
This turned quite a few heads since AOC recently acquired a Tesla Model 3 (not a cheap car) and lives in a luxury apartment in Washington on a congresswomanâs salary of $174,000 a year.
Walsh and many others called her on the hypocrisy.
âShameful that you live in luxury while allowing your own grandmother to suffer in these squalid conditions,â Walsh wrote in a Twitter post, which prompted this rejoinder from AOC:
âYou donât even have a concept for the role that 1st-gen, first-born daughters play in their families,â she wrote.
âMy abuela is okay. But instead of only caring for mine & letting others suffer, Iâm calling attention to the systemic injustices you seem totally fine w/ in having a US colony.â
Well, if Ocasio-Cortez is beholden by cultural strictures that make her unable to pay for her grandmotherâs roof in Puerto Rico, Walsh was more than willing to step up.
âOne cannot be certain of the cost to repair grandmaâs house, but surely most of the work could be completed for the price of AOCâs shiny Tesla Model 3,â Walsh wrote on the GoFundMe page.
âAs AOC pointed out to us, we âdonât even have a concept for the role that play in their families,â but clearly caring for their own grandparent isnât part of it.â
âSadly, virtue-signaling isnât going to fix abuelaâs roof. So we are,â he continued.
âLetâs all kick in to help save AOCâs abuelaâs ancestral home. Any amount is appreciated, but the cost of a monthly lease payment on that Tesla is around $499âŠâ
There were enough people willing to chip in to help AOCâs abuela that $104,153 was collected before Walsh was informed the Ocasio-Cortez family wouldnât be accepting the money â an insult to the donors.
âTragically this charitable effort has been sabotaged by forces outside of our control. Still Iâm grateful for the outpouring of support for abuela, even if AOC isnât,â Walsh tweeted.
âBut questions remain: Why didnât AOC help her own abuela? Why was our help turned down? We are left to speculate.â
âIn the end, our campaign raised 100 thousand dollars and could have solved a problem in ten hours that AOC couldnât solve in four years. We can all be proud of that,â Walsh concluded. âAs for abuela, all we can do now is pray.â
Supplication is apparently more than AOC is willing to do for her grandmother. Sheâll dutifully keep her role as a â1st-gen, first-born daughterâ and not intervene in her grandmotherâs suffering. The family also wonât accept the money â either to fix the roof or to donate it to charity. (Thatâs the unbelievable part â just imagine this going to a liberal non-profit. They wouldnât even do that much.)
Instead, AOCâs abuela will struggle on providing a valuable prop to her granddaughter. Itâs a small sacrifice to pay, Iâm sure sheâll agree.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
