'You've jailed kids and celebrated corruption': AOC hits back at Trump with list of accomplishments after 'Do Nothing Democrats' insult

Ms Ocasio-Cortez listed accomplishments including making PrEP generic, and taking on corruption

(AP (AP)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit back at Donald Trump, after the president attempted to deflect attention from the ongoing impeachment probe by branding her and others in her party as “Do Nothing Democrats”.

The freshman politician listed a litany of issues she's had success on during her short time in Congress — from pushing to make the anti-HIV drug PrEP generic a year early, to taking on general corruption — in spite of Mr Trump's line of attack, which he has deployed with increased frequency as he tries to paint the impeachment probe as a distraction from what he calls “important” issues.

“Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, AOC and the rest of the Democrats are not getting important legislation done, hence, the Do Nothing Democrats,” he wrote. He then claimed that Congress isn’t acting on a range of issues including new trade deals, gun safety, lowering prescription drug prices, and infrastructure projects.

But Ms Ocasio-Cortez, whose name is often shortened to AOC, responded with a sizeable list of issues she’s worked on in just this one year alone.

“In my first 11 months I’ve cosponsored 339 pieces of legislation, authored 15, took on Big Pharma w/ my colleagues in hearings that brought PreP generic a year early & exposed abuse of power,” she wrote on Sunday. “In 4 years, you’ve jailed kids & made corruption the cause celebré.”

She concluded the tweet: “Try to keep up.”

That Congress isn’t passing much this term is no secret, and has actually been touted by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who publicly declared himself to be the “grim reaper” of bills coming out of the House.

So far this year, the Republican-controlled Senate has decided not to take up hundreds of bills sent over by the House, which is controlled by Democrats.

But, a divided Congress is anything but a new phenomenon. In 2014, for instance, when control of the House and Senate was flipped, hundreds of bills passed by Republicans in the people’s chamber were not taken up by Democrats.