AOC seizes on New York City subway flooding to pitch Green New Deal

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took to Twitter Thursday to post a video of a New Yorker wading through waist-high water at a city subway station and warned of things to come without the passage of the Green New Deal. 

She appeared to use the video to mock critics of the deal.

"The Green New Deal, which is a blueprint to create millions of good jobs rebuilding infrastructure to stem climate change & protect vulnerable communities, is unrealistic," she quoted in the tweet. "Instead we will do the adult thing, which is take orders from fossil fuel exes & make you swim to work."

Tropical Strom Elsa has been dumping heavy rain on the region.  

Business Insider reported that it appeared the Ocasio-Cortez was referencing a video that leaked that showed an Exxon lobbyist talked about the alleged effort to weaken President Biden’s climate push. Her office did not immediately respond to an email inquiry from Fox News. 

Biden has been criticized by progressives who say he has not followed through strongly enough on campaign promises to tackle climate change.

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Ocasio-Cortez joined hundreds of protesters outside the White House last month to demand that the Biden administration devotes more attention to climate change, particularly in his massive infrastructure package.

Biden has also been on the receiving end of criticism from progressives who believe that the toned-down infrastructure deal falls short of his $2.3 trillion plan that he outlined in March.

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A $973 billion bipartisan deal includes money to build a national network of electric vehicle charging stations, purchase thousands of electric buses and upgrade the electrical grid. It also would spend $55 billion to improve drinking water and wastewater systems and $47 billion in resiliency efforts to tackle climate change.

Biden wrote an op-ed on Yahoo! that defended the bipartisan deal that he said will create millions of jobs for years to come and add trillion in economic growth. He admitted that the bill is missing some key climate initiatives, but he said he intends to pass those in a future reconciliation bill.

Last April, Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., reintroduced the Green New Deal that critics say is a blueprint for socialism.

"We're going to transition to a 100% carbon-free economy that is more unionized, more just, more dignified and that guarantees more health care and housing than we're ever had before. That's our goal," she said at the time, according to USA Today.

The Associated Press contributed to this report