Ocasio-Cortez on Bret Stephens being called a ‘bedbug’: ‘My own friends roast me harder than that’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called out New York Times columnist Bret Stephens on Tuesday after he deactivated his account and emailed a Twitter user’s employer for calling him a “bedbug.”

“Imagine being on Twitter and having the worst thing you’re called in a given day is ‘bedbug.’ My own friends roast me harder than that,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Tuesday. 

“(For real though, it is pretty concerning that this guy abused his position to try to get someone fired over something so insignificant – esp after creating a career defending vile language as a sacred freedom & deriding people organizing for basic human dignity as ‘snowflakes.’),” she added.

(For real though, it is pretty concerning that this guy abused his position to try to get someone fired over something so insignificant – esp after creating a career defending vile language as a sacred freedom & deriding people organizing for basic human dignity as “snowflakes.”)

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 28, 2019

Stephens announced he was deactivating his account earlier Tuesday after he complained in an email to George Washington University professor David Karpf and the university provost over a tweet in which Karpf referred to Stephens as a “bedbug.” 

The tweet came amid reports that the Times newsroom had an outbreak of bedbugs. 

“Someone just pointed out a tweet you wrote about me, calling me a ‘bedbug,'” Stephens wrote in the email, shared by Karpf. “I’m often amazed about the things supposedly decent people are prepared to say about other people — people they’ve never met — on Twitter. I think you’ve set a new standard.”{mosads}

Karpf noted the tweet had “9 likes and 0 retweets” and that he did not “@ him.” 

Many Twitter users — including other journalists, especially women — chastised Stephens, pointing out the influx of hateful tweets they receive daily.