The Real Reason AOC Threw Shade At Ted Cruz

Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2021, Texas Senator Ted Cruz took to Twitter to slam one of Biden's first moves as leader of the United States: his decision to re-enter the Paris Climate Agreement. Cruz — who stood as one of Biden's most vocal opponents after his November 2020 election win, going as far as to uphold former President Donald Trump's unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud — tweeted his displeasure at Biden's move by accusing the new president of neglecting U.S. interests.

"By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he's more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh," Cruz posted on his Twitter account, invoking the name of a city once earmarked as America's biggest producer of industrial steel. He then added that in his opinion the "agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans."

Unfortunately for Cruz, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quickly noted a glaring flaw in his logic with regards to comparing the Rust Belt metropolis and the capital of France. She made no hesitation in using her observation to throw shade at the Texas lawmaker, per The Daily Beast. So how much shade did AOC end up throwing at Cruz? Read on after the jump to find out.

As The Daily Beast noted, Senator Ted Cruz's attempt to blast the effort spearheaded by President Joe Biden in having the U.S. rejoin the Paris Climate Accord more or less fell flat on its face. The reason? As Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out in her response, Cruz's attempt to compare Paris and Pittsburgh in his criticism was more or less nonsensical, due to the fact that the name of the international treaty was only named "the Paris Agreement" because it was signed by multiple nations near the city in 2015. 

"Nice tweet Sen. Cruz! Quick question: do you also believe the Geneva Convention was about the views of the citizens of Geneva?" Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, pointing out the name of the Paris Accord, like the Geneva Convention, was named in the same vein. Her tweet also emphasized that as the general concept of an international treaty suggests, the Paris Climate Agreement itself has no affiliation with a specific country or continent, but is merely a contract signed by multiple countries. (And in the case of the Paris Climate Agreement specifically, an agreement made in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions by adhering to a common rubric, per NPR.)

Unfortunately for Senator Ted Cruz, AOC wasn't the only one to criticize the Texas legislator's tweet. In fact, his most vocal critics appeared to be current and former residents of Pittsburgh, per PennLive. "Keep my hometown's name out of your mouth. It just goes to show how little Ted Cruz actually knows of Pittsburgh if he thinks it's still a gray, smog-filled city toiling away under steel mills and refineries instead of a green city revitalized around medicine, academia & tech," tweeted journalist Alisha Grauso, referencing Pittsburgh's pivot to green energy and recent tech boom.

Director Jon Favreau added his rejoinder to the mix, noting that Cruz, who worked to discount hundreds of votes during the 2020 election by baselessly claiming voter fraud, failed to note the irony in his initial message. "Says the guy who tried to THROW OUT ALL THE VOTES OF PEOPLE FROM PITTSBURGH," Favreau tweeted.

This isn't the first time Pittsburgh has been weaponized by Republican lawmakers who oppose the Paris Climate Agreement. As The Guardian reported in June 2017, Donald Trump mentioned Pittsburgh in a speech announcing the United States' withdrawal from the agreement. In response, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto openly disparaged Trump for utilizing the city for withdrawal purposes. "As the mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement for our people, our economy and future," Peduto tweeted at the time.