FACT CHECK: Did Ocasio-Cortez Say, ‘Truck Drivers Are Destroying America’?

Trevor Schakohl | Legal Reporter

An image shared on Facebook claims that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “Private truck drivers are destroying America.”

“They get like four miles to the gallon, they think they own the road and they throw bottles of pee out their windows so they can keep driving. It’s a barbaric industry,” the quote continues. “Trucks should all be government regulated and drivers should be on full-time camera until we can figure out how to automate our shipping and do away with them altogether.”

Verdict: False

Ocasio-Cortez has never made this statement. It comes from an article published on a satire website.

Fact Check:

Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman congresswoman from New York, sponsored a House resolution called the Green New Deal in February. It proposes large-scale changes to current economic and environmental policies, including a call for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. (RELATED: Does Ocasio-Cortez Want To Repeal Daylight Saving Time To Combat Climate Change?)

While the Green New Deal does propose an overhaul to the transportation sector, particularly in the context of reducing emissions, it does not include any language that specifically discusses the trucking industry. The Daily Caller did not find any news reports in which the quote appears, and resources like the congressional record turned up no matches either.

It was first attributed to Ocasio-Cortez in an article on Bustatroll.org, a parody news website that refers to itself as part of a network that publishes “parody, satire, and tomfoolery.”

Trevor Schakohl

Legal Reporter
Follow Trevor on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/tschakohl

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