VIDEO - Ocasio-Cortez shuts down town hall audience member after they call GOP lawmaker a 'moron' | TheHill

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-CortezTrump rally crowd hits Ocasio-Cortez with 'AOC sucks' chant in Michigan Warren, Ocasio-Cortez, tweet about lunch together Ocasio-Cortez blasts DeVos for saying she 'loves' the Special Olympics MORE (N.Y.) shut down an audience member at an MSNBC town hall on Friday who yelled out, calling a former GOP lawmaker a "moron."

Ocasio-Cortez appeared alongside former GOP Rep. Bob Inglis (S.C.) on the network for a panel discussion about her proposed Green New Deal and other progressive issues.

During one portion of the town hall, Inglis, who has said he believes in climate change, expressed concerns about having "the mirror image of a Trump rally on climate change."

“If we have basically the mirror image of a Trump rally on climate change, that we drive all the people away that could come our way and solve this thing now,” he said, prompting an audible reaction from the audience.

"Hey, that's unacceptable": Rep. Ocasio-Cortez responds to audience member who called fmr. Rep. Inglis a "moron" during #AOCAllIn pic.twitter.com/tcIQC1OtAa

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 30, 2019

Inglis, who left in the House in 2011, suggested that Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives focus solely on climate change now, before coming back to address other issues like health care and basic income.

“You can’t do it in a single Congress, the entire Green New Deal,” he said. “It is literally impossible with the number of committee references that you would have in the course of that.

“Is it possible that we say, climate change … we’ve got to act now?” he said. “Can we come back maybe to universal basic income a little bit later?”

Some audience members loudly booed Inglis, with one person calling him a “moron.”

“Hey, hey, hey, that’s unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez responded to the audience member, before turning to Inglis and adding: “And that’s the difference between me and Trump.”

She later shared the clip on Twitter, writing, "Let's debate, not debase."

Let’s debate, not debase.  https://t.co/QqmRpT92NF

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 30, 2019

Republicans have compared Ocasio-Cortez to President Trump Donald John TrumpChinese, US negotiators fine tuning details of trade agreement: report Iran wants America out of Iraq; will it succeed? Florida bar reverses no-hat policy after objections from MAGA hat wearer MORE in the past due to her social media use and habit of responding directly to the press and her critics, comparisons that she and her allies have deemed “absurd.”

The MSNBC town hall comes after the Senate blocked the Green New Deal in a vote this week that saw most Democrats voting present. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellOn The Money: Wells Fargo CEO steps down | Trump vows to keep funding for Special Olympics | House panel approves marijuana banking bill | Controversial Fed pick gains support in Senate Green New Deal vote might hurt Republicans more than it divided Democrats Steyer: Green New Deal helped 'move the ball forward' on climate change MORE (R-Ky.) forced a vote on the proposal in an effort to test Democrats’ unity on the topic.

But at the MSNBC event on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez outlined her plans to push forward with a sweeping effort to address climate change through legislation.

“I didn't expect them to make total fools of themselves,” she said of GOP critics of the plan, which she maintains is not socialist or radical.

Updated: 10:10 p.m.