AOC rips Dianne Feinstein after her confrontation with kids over Green New Deal

“The issue has gotten worse. So I don’t think that working on an issue for 30 years alone is what qualifies as — as what makes someone qualified to solve an issue,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a clear swipe at Feinstein.

“That said, there are a lot of people that have been doing this work for decades that have proposed ambitious solutions for years and have not been listened to,” she added. “So it’s not just, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years,’ so we need to listen to them because frankly people have been failing at the same things for 30 or 40 years. What we need to do is say, ‘What solutions have not been tried yet? And what ambitious scale have we not shot at yet.’ And let’s do it.”

During the live stream, Ocasio-Cortez also questioned whether people should still have children because of climate change and further warned that “we have one shot” as “thousands” of people are dying due to its onslaught. The 29-year-old Democratic Socialist said “climate delayers are the new climate deniers” and politicians who seek to “fix” climate change with a carbon tax alone are “part of the problem,” arguing a real solution has to match the magnitude of the problem.

[Related: AOC to critics of Green New Deal: ‘I’m the boss’ until you try]

Progressives envisioning a Green New Deal have turned away from carbon pricing in favor of government mandates to transition the U.S. to entirely renewable energy.

A group of children confronted Feinstein on Friday morning, demanding she vote for the Green New Deal. However, the senator wasn’t having it.

“You know what’s interesting about this group? I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing. You come in here, and you say, ‘It has to be my way or the highway.’ I don’t respond to that. I’ve gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million-vote plurality, and I know what I’m doing. Maybe people should listen a little bit,” Feinstein said in a video of the encounter outside the Democrat’s San Francisco office shared on social media by the Sunrise Movement, a progressive climate advocacy group.

Feinstein told the group that the resolution was not sustainable because there was no way to pay for it and it would get no support from Republican lawmakers.

Feinstein said hours later she gave the group a draft of her resolution with specifics on how to combat climate change. The senator did not provide those specifics in her statement, but said she planned to reveal the resolution soon. “Unfortunately, it was a brief meeting but I want the children to know they were heard loud and clear. I have been and remain committed to doing everything I can to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation,” she said.

The New Green Deal resolution was authored by Ocasio-Cortez and longtime climate advocate Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. It is nonbinding but calls for Congress to take the lead in ridding the nation of fossil fuels in the next few decades, among other dramatic environmental and economic changes.

Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to facing off against long-established Democrats. She won against Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in June in their primary race. She then beat her Republican opponent, Anthony Pappas, in the general election and represents New York’s 14th Congressional District.

Ocasio-Cortez also dismissed detractors of her Green New Deal on Friday, saying at an event in New York City to any critic who has yet to offer their own bold environmental ideas: “Until you do it, I’m the boss.”

“Like I just introduced the Green New Deal two weeks ago, and it’s creating all of this conversation. Why? Because no one else has even tried. Because no one else has even tried,” she told moderator Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code.

“So people are like, ‘Oh it’s unrealistic. Oh it’s vague. Oh it doesn’t address this little minute thing,'” she added. “And I’m like, ‘You try. You do it. Cuz you’re not. Cuz you’re not. So, until you do it, I’m the boss.’ How about that?'”

The comments were met with laughter and cheers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is fast-tracking the resolution through the Senate, enabling a vote as early as next week, in an effort to force Democrats and several of their presidential candidates to go on record as soon as next week on a plan that has attracted ridicule and split the party.

Most scientists believe climate change accelerated by fossil fuel consumption is occurring. While global temperatures on average are on the rise, that does not preclude cold weather.