GoFundMe for AOC's 'abuela' shutdown after she said she would refuse the money
Creator of the fundraiser, Matt Walsh, speaks out after the Congresswoman rejected his offer to help on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to speak about his "philanthropy" after he led a campaign that raised over $100,000 for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's, D-N.Y., grandmother, which was ultimately rejected by her family according to GoFundMe.
"She's a wealthy, single woman who has two apartments and a Tesla she just recently bought apparently," Walsh said about the Democratic congresswoman on Monday. "She for whatever reason refused to help her own grandmother. We said, ‘Alright, you know what? We'll get together and we’ll raise the money. We raised $100,000 in ten hours, okay? We probably could've raised a million dollars if they'd let the fundraiser continue, but someone, ‘someone' … in abuela's family shut down the fundraiser about ten hours into it and said that she didn't want the money."
Walsh insisted the refusal of the money "raises a lot of questions" like if Ocasio-Cortez's grandmother "really wasn't in dire straits," or if the Democratic squad member "prefer for her grandmother to live in that state suffering rather than take money from us."
"I think either way it's sort of scandalous on AOC's part," Walsh told Fox News' Tucker Carlson.
The "Matt Walsh Show" host pushed back at the lawmaker's stance that she was focusing on the "systemic problems" within the government, insisting his GoFundMe campaign was proof that "you don't have to wait around for the system to solve any problem."
"This is a problem we could've solved not just for abuela but they could've taken the money, fix the ceiling, bought her some furniture she clearly needs, and then could've taken the rest of the money and helped the neighbors, they could've helped the whole community, but they didn't want to do that," Walsh said.
The Daily Wire personality also mentioned "I put my hat in the ring" for a Nobel Peace Prize, arguing it should be given to him since it "doesn't mean anything anyway."
A spokesperson for GoFundMe confirmed to Fox News on Saturday that the "beneficiary" did not want to accept the money and that "all donors will be fully refunded."
Last Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez to Twitter following her visit to her grandmother in Puerto Rico for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak and documented the damage to her home that remained from the Hurricane Maria in 2017, but suggested former President Trump was to blame for the prolonged conditions.
"Just 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," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted while sharing images of buckets on the floor catching leaking water and damage to the ceiling. "Hurricane María relief hasn’t arrived. Trump blocked relief $ for PR. People are being forced to flee ancestral homes, & developers are taking them."
She continued, "We immediately got to work reaching out to community advocates and leaders and following the money. What’s happening to Puerto Ricans is systemic. Much of it can be traced to La Junta, aka the Wall Street-connected fiscal control board that the US gave power to over the island." Ocasio-Cortez accused the Trump administration of overseeing "millions" of tax dollars being handed to "unqualified donor pals" and imposing "extremely difficult eligibility rules for Puerto Ricans, which allowed mass rejections of recovery fund applications."
"I want to be clear - while Trump admin had a major role, it wasn’t just them," the congresswoman wrote in the Twitter thread. "La Junta, local policies, etc were all on the same page: policies that pushed out local families. To turn this around, we need audits & get recovery relief to people ASAP, without the onerous strings. And for the record - my abuela is doing okay. It’s not about us, but about what’s happening to Puerto Rican’s across the island. She had a place to go to and be cared for - what about the thousands of people who don’t?"
AOC: ANYONE WHO USES TERM ‘SURGE’ ABOUT BORDER CRISIS IS INVOKING A ‘MILITARISTIC FRAME’
At the time, Walsh reacted to her tweets saying, "Shameful that you live in luxury while allowing your own grandmother to suffer in these squalid conditions."
The Democrat fired back, "You don’t even have a concept for the role that 1st-gen, first-born daughters play in their families. My abuela is okay. But instead of only caring for mine & letting others suffer, I’m calling attention to the systemic injustices you seem totally fine w/ in having a US colony."
On Friday, Walsh launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to "Save AOC's Abuela's Ancestral Home."
"One cannot be certain of the cost to repair grandma’s house, but surely most of the work could be completed for the price of AOC’s shiny Tesla Model 3," Walsh wrote in the campaign description. "Sadly, virtue-signaling isn’t going to fix abuela’s roof. So we are.
Walsh continued, "Let’s all kick in to help save AOC’s abuela’s ancestral home. Any amount is appreciated, but the cost of a monthly lease payment on that Tesla is around $499… All proceeds will be donated to abuela, if she will accept them."
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The Daily Wire personality promoted the fundraiser on Twitter, revealing he kicked off the fundraising with a $499 donation, which he stressed is the cost of a Tesla monthly lease payment.
The #HelpAbuela campaign had attracted big-name donors including Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and Dave Rubin. The effort raised $104,153.
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