US Green leader Jill Stein in spat with Democrat's AOC over 'Gaza genocide denial'

Prominent Democrat Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has run into a social media spat after the leader of America's left-wing Green Party accused her of supporting "genocide" over Israel’s war on Gaza.

Jill Stein claimed in a radio interview that AOC was promoting Democratic Party talking points which hint at "colonialism and white supremacy" in response to a discussion about the several times the Green Party had failed to win elections.

Stein was interviewed by political commentator Angela Rye on The Breakfast Club radio show, which aired on Thursday, with a segment of the interview discussing AOC going viral on social media and triggering a war of words between the two politicians.

The Green Party leader is running for the presidency in US elections in November, giving voters a third option alongside Democrat candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, but the US political system historically favours the two-party system and leaves little room for minority groups or independents.

The Green Party historically has rarely performed well in local or national elections and does not currently have any seats in the Senate or House of Representatives. It first gained national attention in 2000 when its leaders gained 1.7 percent of the vote during the presidential election won by George W. Bush.

During the radio interview, Rye listed the six times Stein had lost elections and asked what her "winning strategy" was this time. Rye was criticised for the harsh approach by social media users who defended Stein’s record.

In response, Stein said Rye was using a framing "of the empire, and the oligarch, and colonialism and white supremacy which wants you to feel resistance is futile".

Rye, an attorney, hit back and said she was not "parroting white supremacy" to which the Green leader said she was promoting "talking points" of the Democratic Party.

Stein went on to claim that it was a talking point recently used by progressive Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to which Rye hit back, saying the AOC which the Green Party leader doesn't is an election win.

The exchange was widely shared on social media platform X on Thursday which prompted AOC to repost a segment of the interview on X.

"Nobody needs talking points to know Jill Stein hasn’t won so much as a bingo game in the last decade," she said.

Ocasio-Cortez, who was the youngest woman to be elected to Congress aged 29, went on to say that if Stein gave "a damn about people" then "you organise, build power and infrastructure, and win".

In response, Stein wrote on X: "Well @AOC, you supporting genocide was NOT on my bingo card, but the Democrats have a way of changing people who say they're going to 'change the party from the inside'".

Palestinian-American politician and Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman rebuked Stein, describing her comment as "vile" and said AOC was "one of the first to call what's happening in Gaza a genocide".

"And AOC, like so many of us, understand the serious threat of a second Trump term. No one would be talking about Stein negatively if she'd focused her efforts in safe states," the representative wrote.

Stein currently leads Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris among Arab-Americans, according to the Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR), but has been criticised by some for her party's perceived soft touch on Syria's Bashar Al-Assad and Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Stein faced fresh scrutiny this week over past comments about the Syrian regime and was forced to issue a statement on Thursday to clarify that she held an "anti-interventionist" position on Syria but opposed Assad.

Ocasio-Cortez, recognised for her progressive policies of the 'Squad', a four-member group of Democratic women, has faced criticism for her apparent selective approach to criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.

She called Gaza an "unfolding genocide" during a speech in the House of Representatives in March and said Israel’s war was a "mass starvation of people", but critics say she has been quieter about the suffering in the enclave since then.

AOC also called for the halt of US weapons transfers to Israel, which recently received $3.5 billion to spend on American-manufactured weapons and equipment.