AOC's Grandma Won't Take Donation From Clay, Or Anybody Else

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed in a tweet on Wednesday that people in Puerto Rico — like her grandmother — are being "forced to flee ancestral homes and developers are taking them" and blamed former President Donald Trump for blocking aid that was supposed to be sent to the island following Hurricane Maria.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh set up a GoFundMe to raise money to help AOC's grandmother and revealed Saturday that the "family" of AOC's grandmother will not be accepting the money he raised, with the help of social media.

Walsh shared an email he received from the GoFundMe Trust & Safety Team that informed him that they had been in communications with the "beneficiary's family," who made it clear that "they will not be accepting the funds raised" — which totaled over $100,000.

"When a beneficiary doesn't want to accept the funds that have been raised on their behalf, it is standard practice to turn off donations, then refund all donors," GoFundMe told Walsh. 

The conversations began on Wednesday when Ocasio-Cortez that she traveled to Puerto Rico to visit her sick grandmother and shared images of buckets on the floor catching leaking water and damage to the ceiling.

"Just over a week ago, my abuela fell ill. I went to Puerto Rico to see her- my 1st time in a year+ bc of COVID. This is her home," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "Hurricane María relief hasn’t arrived. Trump blocked relief $ for PR. People are being forced to flee ancestral homes, & developers are taking them."

"I want to be clear - while Trump admin had a major role, it wasn’t just them," the congresswoman wrote in the Twitter thread. "La Junta, local policies, etc were all on the same page: policies that pushed out local families. To turn this around, we need audits & get recovery relief to people ASAP, without the onerous strings. And for the record - my abuela is doing okay. It’s not about us, but about what’s happening to Puerto Rican’s across the island. She had a place to go to and be cared for - what about the thousands of people who don’t?"

Walsh replied to her tweets short after and said: "Shameful that you live in luxury while allowing your own grandmother to suffer in these squalid conditions."

She fired back saying Walsh doesn't have a "concept for the role" that first-generation, first-born daughters play in their families.

"My abuela is okay," she said. "But instead of only caring for mine & letting others suffer, I’m calling attention to the systemic injustices you seem totally fine w/ in having a US colony.”

Walsh then said AOC was using her grandmother’s suffering to score political points.

"You’re the one who publicized this," he tweeted. "So I am entitled now to ask why you haven’t bothered to fix your grandmother’s collapsing roof or buy her some new furniture? Why are you waiting for the government to do it?"

Walsh decided to raise the money instead through a GoFundMe. The #HelpAbuela raised $104,153 in less than 12 hours. Walsh disabled new donations on the GoFundMe page Friday night, Fox News reports.

Fox News confirmed with a spokesperson for GoFundMe that the "beneficiary" did not want to accept the money and that "all donors will be fully refunded."

Puerto Rico’s recovery from Maria, which killed approximately 2,975, has been hampered by a series of earthquakes in 2019, followed by the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Post reports.