Ever heard the phrase, “Quit while you’re ahead”?
Perhaps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should learn a new one: "Quit if you're abysmally behind."
The freshman Democratic congresswoman from New York doubled down on one of the most ridiculous and controversial parts of her Green New Deal Thursday in a sit-down interview with Showtime’s "Desus & Mero," where she tried – and failed – to explain why scaling back on “farting cows” were included in her original proposal draft.
“In the deal, what we talk about is ... that we need to take a look at factory farming, period. It’s wild,” she told hosts Desus Nice and The Kid Mero (yes, those are their actual monikers).
“And so, it’s not to say you get rid of agriculture. It’s not to say we’re going to force everybody to go vegan or anything crazy like that. But it’s to say, listen, we’ve got to address factory farming. Maybe we shouldn’t be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like, let’s keep it real. We have to take a look at everything,” she continued.
Breaking: .@AOC explains ’Farting Cows’ in Green New Deal FAQ, and how she plans on fighting farmers and reduce meat consumption at the same time.
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 22, 2019
This will definitely play well in Iowa, Ohio, and Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/MyXmRrr6dx
Of course, AOC provided exactly zero explanation for how she’d actually keep cows from producing methane, which is the No. 1 source of agriculturally-produced greenhouse gasses, which the Green New Deal aims to totally eliminate. Nor does she address exactly how low she wants to take the cow population, or who in their right mind is eating a “hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner” to create this alleged over-the-top beef demand in the first place.
In AOC’s original Green New Deal resolution proposal, “farting cows” were specifically singled out verbatim as a reason why a total elimination of all greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade just isn’t feasible.
“We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero, emissions in 10 years because we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast,” the document said.
AOC & Co. may have decided that totally nixing livestock from the country by 2030 isn’t a viable option – however, if her recent interview with Keenan and Kel is any indication, she’s definitely coming for your Big Mac.