NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — In a dig at New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's use of Twitter to comment on the battle heating up over the city's budget, Mayor Eric Adams urged the high-profile "Squad" member to "pick up the phone" rather than tweet.
"I think there’s professional courtesy, that it is an issue," Adams said about AOC during a Friday event, the New York Post reported. "You know, don't tweet — speak. Pick up the phone. Call your colleague and say, 'I'm concerned.'"
His criticism of AOC's use of social media came after she chastised City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who, according to Politico, is alleged to have intentionally excluded six progressive members who voted against the city's $101 billion budget by scrubbing some of the projects they hoped to fund —including cutting funding for the Boys & Girls Club in Astoria, which was sought by one dissenter, Councilmember Tiffany Cabán.
In response, the 32-year-old Bronx-Queens representative urged her Twitter followers on Wednesday to donate to the Boys & Girls Club location and seemingly blasted the speaker.
"I’m just at a TEN at how anyone calling themselves a Democrat makes a decision to hurt kids out of spite," she tweeted, adding "I've seen a lot of shameful behavior from leadership, but cutting programs for underprivileged kids to score a point? Unbelievable."
The next day, Speaker Adams knocked Ocasio-Cortez in a press conference, who, like Adams, appeared to mock her use of Twitter — though she didn't exactly use her name, the Post reported.
"Some federal elected officials forget that a city is not managed on Twitter or social media," Adams said. "We don’t have that privilege."
According to the Post, the speaker also said the members who were removed from the funding didn't lose money — they just didn't get credit for the projects because they had already indicated that they would vote "no" on the budget.
She also said that one of the cuts to the Astoria Boys & Girls Club, which reportedly saw its $150,000 grant awarded last year cut to just $75,000, was a mistake.
"How about just speaking? How about picking up the phone and asking and giving your advice?" Mayor Adams continued Friday. "I'm sure this, the speaker will take her call."
"We're not into this, ‘Let's just, you know, go on social media and tweet out our concerns,'" he added. "Let's talk to each other!"
A representative for AOC's office did not immediately respond to the Post's request for comment.
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