FACT CHECK: Did Ocasio-Cortez Say Time Zones Will Protect The US From Chinese Missiles?
A meme shared on Facebook claimed that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the U.S. doesn’t have to worry about Chinese missile attacks because of the difference in time zones between the two countries.
“We’ll never have to worry about China attacking us! They are 12 hours ahead, so we’ll have plenty of time to shoot down their missiles!” reads the alleged quote.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that Ocasio-Cortez ever made this statement.
Fact Check:
Ocasio-Cortez came to national prominence after defeating 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley to represent New York’s 14th congressional district. She is a self-described democratic socialist and, at 29, is the youngest woman to ever be elected to Congress.
She has also drawn the ire of her critics, with this particular meme created to question her intelligence. “Did she REALLY say that? Yep, you’re looking at the future of the Democrat party…” the image reads.
However, The Daily Caller News Foundation found no evidence that she ever said the alleged quote. The meme does not cite any source and has been circulating the internet since at least September. (RELATED: Did Ocasio-Cortez Really Say This About Ben Shapiro?)
Corbin Trent, a spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, told FactCheck.org last year that the quote was fabricated. “She’s never even discussed Chinese missiles. Period,” he said. “Her foreign policy topics have been about peace not war.”
A section of her campaign website titled “A Peace Economy” lays out her general foreign policy stances. “Alexandria believes that we must end the ‘forever war’ by bringing our troops home, and ending the air strikes that perpetuate the cycle of terrorism throughout the world,” it reads.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project, China is “in the process of building and deploying a sophisticated and modern missile arsenal” and has a “relatively small but developing contingent of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S. homeland.”
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