AOC says she won't appear on Fox while ad revenue 'bankrolls white supremacist sympathiser' Tucker Carlson

New York congresswoman hits out after TV guest calls her district – home to thousands of immigrants – 'one of the least American' in the country

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Fox personality Tucker Carlson is a "white supremacist sympathiser" who the network allows to "broadcast an hour-long production of unmitigated racism, without any accountability whatsoever".

The latest broadside against the network host, who has called white supremacy a "hoax" and not a "real problem", came after a guest on the show smeared the progressive politician's district — home to thousands of immigrants in the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx — as one of the "least American districts in the country" and "gross".

Seth Barron, an associate editor of the right-wing City Journal, claimed the 14th district was "occupied by relatively few American citizens" and is home to "a very high percentage" of people living in the country illegally, who "wind up producing a lot of garbage".

The latest figures from the US Census show roughly 47 per cent of the district is foreign-born, but not "illegal aliens" or non-citizens, as Mr Barron claimed.

Mr Barron's comments were packaged in a segment alleging the congresswoman's hypocrisy for support of a Green New Deal, which would address the rising threats of climate change and economic inequality through a series of sweeping economic and social reforms.

The segment supported its argument with a video of litter apparently found in the area.

Mr Carlson said: "How can we take seriously anything she says about the environment when this — she should be ashamed of this."

On Twitter, Ms Ocasio-Cortez said: "I go back and forth on whether to go on Fox News. ... The main reason I haven't is squaring the fact that the ad revenue from it bankrolls a white supremacist sympathiser to broadcast an hour-long production of unmitigated racism, without any accountability whatsoever."

She continued: "'Immigrants are dirty' is a lazy, tired, racist trope. ... Secondly, environmental injustice is a major motivation as to why we introduced and wrote the Green New Deal the way we did in the first place."

Dozens of advertisers have pulled out of Tucker Carlson Tonight over the last year over the host's increasingly xenophobic rhetoric as well as resurfaced clips of his misogynistic comments made on a controversial radio show.

On an August episode of his programme, Mr Carlson called white supremacy a "hoax" that has been "used to divide the country and keep a hold on power".

Just a few days earlier, a white man in El Paso, Texas killed 22 people and wounded dozens others after posting an online message attacking immigrants arriving from the US-Mexico border and echoing anti-immigrant language used by Mr Carlson and other right-wing media personalities.

After defending his statements following his appearance on Fox, Mr Barron said he "chose the wrong words".

"The issue I intended to raise was that immigrants, both documented and not, are often unable to access legal, affordable housing", he said on Twitter. "This crisis has led many people, including immigrants, to illegal basement dwellings, where landlords fail to collect trash, leaving residents in a tough position, ultimately putting their garbage on the streets. ... I didn't do justice to a complex issue and I apologise."