Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Former VP Candidate Joe Lieberman: 'New Party, Who Dis?'

Joe Lieberman once hoped to represent the future of the Democratic Party. Now, the former Connecticut senator and vice presidential candidate is telling a political newcomer to shy away from that ambition because "she's different."

Lieberman, who ran as the vice presidential nominee on Al Gore's unsuccessful ticket in 2000, told Fox Business Network on Thursday that he hopes Representative Alexandria Cortez-Ocasio (D-N.Y.) doesn't think she's the future of the Democratic Party.

"With all respect, I certainly hope she's not the future, and I don't believe she is," Lieberman said on a Fox show hosted by Neil Cavuto. "She's gotten a lot of attention because she's different. She's controversial," Lieberman continued. "But if you look at the majority of new Democrats in the House, they tend to be, I say, center-left, if they are not left-left. And that is because they had to be center-left to win some of those competitive swing districts that they took from Republicans. So that's the hope."

On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez snapped back at Lieberman, using New York slang.

"New party, who dis?"

Technically, it's the same political party, but a newer swath of lawmakers are filling seats in the Capitol, including Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman already making ripples in her first week.

In November, Ocasio-Cortez, 29, became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Her rise to stardom from New York City bartender to a congresswoman started when she unseated Democrat incumbent Joseph Crowley in a primary and then went on to win the seat during the midterms.

Ocasio-Cortez is a self-proclaimed socialist democrat who has claimed higher taxes and wealth distribution are needed. She has proposed a 70 percent tax on the wealthiest Americans to fund her New Green Deal.

When the U.S. government went into a partial shutdown on December 21, Ocasio-Cortez, even before getting sworn in, said congressional members should forgo their paychecks if 800,000 federal workers had to work without them. Her statement drew praise from both sides of the aisle.

Ocasio-Cortez was just 10 years old when Lieberman ran for vice president along with Gore. This wasn't Lieberman's first slam against her. After her defeat of Crowley and heading into the summer, Lieberman told the New York Post that she was someone who could "hurt Congress, America and the Democratic Party" rather than help it.

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's surprise primary victory over Rep. Joe Crowley seems likely to hurt Congress, America and the Democratic Party. It doesn't have to," Lieberman wrote in The Wall Street Journal. "Because the policies Ms. Ocasio-Cortez advocates are so far from the mainstream, her election in November would make it harder for Congress to stop fighting and start fixing problems."

However, Ocasio-Cortez has seen an explosion in popularity, thanks especially to Facebook and Twitter, neither of which existed when Lieberman ran for vice president in 2000.