'Women notice': AOC rebukes Trump and GOP for 'disrespecting' congresswomen by using their nicknames

‘Basic respect’ to use full names and titles, says AOC

(Getty Images)

Democrat lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused president Donald Trump and the wider GOP of "disrespecting" congresswomen by referring to them by their first or nicknames.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, US representative for New York's 14th congressional district, said both Mr Trump and other high profile Republicans use full titles when referring to their male colleagues.

She said: "I wonder if Republicans understand how much they advertise their disrespect of women in debates when they consistently call women members of Congress by nicknames or first names while using titles & last names when referring to men of [equal] stature".

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, who is often referred to as "AOC", said the abbreviation should not be used by political opponents or government colleagues.

"AOC is a name given to me by community & the people. Y’all can call me AOC," the 30-year-old lawmaker added.

"Government colleagues referring to each other in a public or professional context (aka who don’t know me like that) should refer to their peers as 'Congresswoman,' 'Representative,' etc. Basic respect 101'", she added.

The congresswoman's firm rebuttal came following last night's third and final presidential debate between Mr Trump, 77, and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, 77.

During the debate the president specifically name-checked congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez while attacking the Democrats 'Green New Deal', a series of reforms aimed at tackling climate change and creating new jobs.

"You know who developed it [the Green New Deal]? AOC plus three," the president said as he accused the congresswoman of knowing "nothing about the climate".

"Plus three" was a reference to Ocasio-Cortez's colleagues Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib - three black and minority ethnic congresswomen known as "The Squad" involved in drawing up the Green New Deal.

Congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez and Omar were elected to office during the 2019 intake and the pair have become the subject of repeated attacks by the president and Republican lawmakers during the 2020 race for the White House.

Throughout his reelection campaign, the president has often brought up congresswoman Omar's Somalian heritage, using it as a lightning rod to fire up his base at Make America Great Again rallies.

At one such rally in Pennsylvania, the president accused congresswoman Omar of not being American when he said: "how's your country doing?" after she criticised his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed some 223,000 US lives.

He has consistently used inflammatory language to describe minorities and has claimed on several occasions, without evidence, that former vice president Biden plans to "fill" the country with refugees should he get elected.

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, whose father was a bus driver and her mother a cleaner, has also been attacked by the president and Republicans.

Earlier this year, the president said she was "not even a smart person" and a "poor student". He also retweeted an attack on the Democrat which described her as “an embarrassing, barely literate moron” after she claimed that billionaires are a product of “modern-day slave wages”.

Democrats and other critics, some of whom are Republicans, have accused the president of having a bad attitude towards women in general. The president has faced multiple sexual assault allegations, all of which he denies.

In 2016 it emerged that he allegedly had an affair with the adult film actress, Stormy Daniels.  

The president, through his disgraced ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, paid hush money to Ms Daniels. But the president denied that he had sex with the 41-year-old.

Despite weathering all those storms during the 2016 race for the White House, the president's treatment of women might be coming back to haunt him.  

Women voters, who were key to the president's 2016 victory and who perhaps wanted to take a chance on something different, having been deserting him in droves ever since.

According to a recent Washington Post/ABC poll, Mr Biden leads the president by 59 per cent to 36 per cent among women likely to vote. The two candidates are more evenly matched when it comes to male voters and are both on around 48 per cent.

Mr Biden also has a substantial lead among suburban mothers, who the president begged for support earlier this month, telling them: "please like me".

In 2016, 58 per cent of voters were female against 53 per cent male.  

Women voters are again expected to play a crucial role in November's election because analysts predict they will turn out in greater numbers than men.

And all the evidence suggests the 2016 trends among women voters will be reversed in favour of Mr Biden, who also holds a substantial lead in most major polls across the board.