June 5, 2021
-The Blaze
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh organized a crowdfunding campaign to help the grandmother of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was living in “squalid conditions” in Puerto Rico. The massively successful GoFundMe campaign raised over $100,000 for AOC’s abuela, but the family has reportedly rejected the generous financial offer to repair the grandma’s dilapidated home.

The saga started on Wednesday when Ocasio-Cortez shared photos of her grandmother’s home that was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The far-left congresswoman blamed former President Donald Trump for the lack of hurricane relief.

“Just over a week ago, my abuela fell ill,” Ocasio-Cortez told her nearly 13 million Twitter followers. “I went to Puerto Rico to see her- my 1st time in a year+ bc of COVID. This is her home. Hurricane María relief hasn’t arrived. Trump blocked relief $ for PR. People are being forced to flee ancestral homes, & developers are taking them.”

Many online commenters blasted the Tesla-owning Democratic socialist for not spreading her own wealth to fix her abuela’s damaged home.

Matt Walsh, a writer for the Daily Wire, took a more charitable approach. Walsh launched a GoFundMe campaign titled “Save AOC’s Abuela’s Ancestral Home.” At the time of publication, the campaign raised $104,153 for AOC’s abuela.

Walsh provided an update on the crowdfunding campaign on Saturday morning, which indicated that the charitable gesture was not well-received.

“‘Someone’ in AOC’s abuela’s family told GoFundMe that she won’t take the money, even though AOC previously claimed that her grandma was in dire straits (and it was Trump’s fault),” Walsh wrote on Twitter. “@AOC still hasn’t acknowledged. Tragically this charitable effort has been sabotaged by forces outside of our control.”

“Still I’m grateful for the outpouring of support for abuela, even if AOC isn’t. But questions remain: Why didn’t AOC help her own abuela? Why was our help turned down? We are left to speculate. In the end, our campaign raised 100 thousand dollars and could have solved a problem in ten hours that AOC couldn’t solve in four years. We can all be proud of that. As for abuela, all we can do now is pray.”

“It’s pretty fascinating, really. We raised enough to change her grandmother’s life,” Walsh continued. “We could have raised enough to lift her whole neighborhood out of poverty. AOC shut it down. She’d rather leave people to suffer than accept help from us. Very revealing episode.”

There were spirited reactions to the rejected crowdfunding campaign for AOC’s abuela.

Social media personality Mike Cernovich said, “This is possibly elder abuse. The money was abuela’s – who according to AOC was nearly homeless. Refusing this money could be a crime depending on the circumstances as it’s depriving an elderly person of money legally owned by her.”

Journalist Tim Pool reacted by saying, “This is actually disgusting wtf? AOC could have just thanked them, made if fun. She could have made this something warming.”

The Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing noted, “Imagine neither helping your grandmother when she’s living in terrible conditions, nor allowing others to help her. I guess @AOC only wants your money if the government takes it against your will.”

Conservative author Candace Owens asked, “This is shocking. Is @AOC legally allowed to deny the funds? The money wasn’t for her. Abuela is SUFFERING. Why would wealthy AOC insist money be routed to Abuela from the government, but block over $100,000 from philanthropists?”

Twitter user Allahpundit joked, “At the very least aoc should let grandma sleep in the back seat of her tesla.”

Walsh reacted to criticism to his GoFundMe campaign, which one media outlet labeled as a “personal attack” on Ocasio-Cortez.

“Was it trolling? Was it a stunt? Was it charitable? Was it proving a point? Was it trying to solve a problem? Was it a sincere attempt to raise money for a cause? Was it mean? Was it nice? Was it hilarious? Yes,” Walsh tweeted.

c. THE BLAZE