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New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
- Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan offered some advice to freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she arrived in Washington, but she wasn't interested in his guidance, Ryan said on Tuesday night.
- "I don't think she really listened to a thing I said, you know, 'just take it easy, just watch things for a while,'" the Wisconsin Republican remarked at an annual dinner in his hometown of Janesville.
- Ocasio-Cortez has long been a critic of Ryan's, calling his decades-long push for entitlement reform "unAmerican" in 2017.
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan offered some advice to freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she arrived in Washington earlier this year, but she wasn't interested in his guidance, Ryan said on Tuesday night.
"I don't think she really listened to a thing I said, you know, 'just take it easy, just watch things for a while,'" the Wisconsin Republican remarked at an annual dinner in his hometown of Janesville, according to the Janesville GazetteXtra, a local
Rather than "take it easy," Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most outspoken Democratic leaders in Washington, where she's challenged both Republicans and members of her own party.
Ocasio-Cortez has also long been a critic of Ryan's. Six months before she stunned the political world by beating Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in the New York primary, Ocasio-Cortez criticized Ryan's decades-long push to reform entitlements.
She argued that both she and Ryan received crucial government assistance following the deaths of their fathers, and that limiting those benefits for others would be "unAmerican."
Ryan, who retired from Congress this year after two decades in office, was - like Ocasio-Cortez - first elected to Congress at age 28. But Ocasio-Cortez has argued that the two were treated differently as new lawmakers based on their gender.
She tweeted last December that Ryan was hailed as a "genius" when he was elected to the House in 1998, while she was labeled a "fraud."
Paul Ryan and I have something in common: both our fathers died when we were teens.
Paul Ryan received Social Security payments that allowed him to go to college and later, Congress.
My family received them too. But I don't shut the door behind me. That would be un-American. https://t.co/GGvQ2xy2lc
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 19, 2017