Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accuses conservative pundit Ben Shapiro of harassing her with repeated requests for debate

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accuses conservative pundit Ben Shapiro of harassing her with repeated requests for debate

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New York House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Mario Tama/Getty Images

New York House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sparred with conservative pundit Ben Shapiro on Thursday after Shapiro challenged the congressional candidate to a debate.
  • Ocasio-Cortez accused Shapiro and his allies of harassing her, comparing their behavior to catcalling - and something to which she's not obliged to respond. 
  • Shapiro then accused the 28-year-old congressional candidate of "slandering" him. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising star on the left, sparred with conservative pundit Ben Shapiro on Thursday after Shapiro challenged the congressional candidate to a debate in exchange for a $10,000 campaign donation. 

Following a chorus of calls on the right for Ocasio-Cortez to take Shapiro up on his offer, the 28-year-old Democratic socialist accused Shapiro and his allies of harassing her. 

"I don't owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions," she tweeted. "And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one."

Shapiro, a conservative millennial commentator and editor in chief of the right-wing website The Daily Wire, quickly condemned Ocasio-Cortez's suggestion that his offer was made in bad faith. 

"Discussion and debate are not 'bad intentions,'" he wrote. "Slandering someone as a sexist catcaller without reason or evidence does demonstrate cowardice and bad intent, however." 

He added, "I'm sure your media sycophants will eat it up." 

Ocasio-Cortez, who stunned Washington when she beat the powerful incumbent New York Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary in June, has developed a robust social media presence, and her tweets often go viral. 

Shapiro is not the first in conservative circles to offer to debate liberal politicians with more power and influence - Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz repeatedly challenged President Barack Obama to debate policies like the Iran nuclear deal.

Many on the left criticized Shapiro for what they viewed as a gimmicky provocation designed to earn him media attention - something of which Shapiro himself has been critical. 

"Ticking off the left by just saying nasty things is not productive," he told Business Insider recently. "And it wasn't defeating political correctness, it's actually exacerbating political correctness. Because when yo''re a jerk just to piss people off then the natural reaction by people tends to be 'well we need more restrictions on speech, we need more political correctness, not less.'"

Open Secrets, an arm of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, noted in a tweet that a $10,000 donation to Ocasio-Cortez's campaign would violate campaign finance regulations on individual donations. 

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