© Wikimedia / Flickr / WikipediaBen Shapiro and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
"Just like catcalling, I don't owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Thursday. "And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one."
Shapiro responded, denying his offer to debate had 'bad intentions.' "Slandering someone as a sexist catcaller without reason or evidence does demonstrate cowardice and bad intent, however," he said.
Shapiro extended the invitation to Ocasio-Cortez on his The Ben Shapiro Show on Wednesday, telling his audience he would donate $10,000 to Ocasio-Cortez's campaign or a charity if she would come on the show to debate him so that he could "probe" her belief system.
The conservative host referenced Ocasio-Cortez's comments that Republicans aren't willing to debate, and said he wanted to ask her to "name an industry you would not nationalize; which ones should the government not run and why?"
"Alright, can she name any of them?" he added.
Ocasio-Cortez is running to represent New York's 14th Congressional District on a social-democratic platform which includes calling for Medicare for all, tuition-free public college education, and an end to the use of fossil fuels.
She beat veteran Representative Joe Crowley (D-NY) in the primary, prompting the Democratic National Committee's Tom Perez to describe the former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer as "the future" of the Democratic party.
Shapiro is a staunch right-winger and critic of democratic socialism whose Daily Wire website is owned by fossil fuel billionaires the Dan and Farris Wilks. He has written a book called, How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them.
Comment: If Ocasio-Cortez had real confidence in the soundness of her ideology, she would welcome Shapiro's offer. Why turn down free campaign publicity and a possible hefty donation to boot?