Ocasio-Cortez ridicules Sarah Palin's 'grandpa emails' following Republican attacks

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has ridiculed Sarah Palin over her “grandpa emails” after the former vice-presidential candidate joined a string of senior Republicans in attacking the newly-elected Democrat.

“Now that’s *TWO* fallen GOP Vice Pres candidates going after a freshman Congresswoman that’s not even sworn in yet,” the 29-year-old wrote on Twitter.

“Isn’t it a little early to be bringing out the big guns?"

Comparing Ms Palin’s tweet to something someone’s grandparent might write on the internet, she added: “Especially when they look like the FWD:RE:FWD:WATCH THIS grandpa emails from the ‘08 election they lost.”

The spat occurred after Ms Palin, who was running mate to John McCain in 2008, tweeted a link to an article on her own website calling out Ms Ocasio-Cortez for misspeaking and referring to the branches of government as the “three chambers of congress”, then the “three chambers of government”.

There are two chambers of congress, the senate and house of representatives. The three branches of government are the executive, the judiciary and the legislature.

“YIKES: Ocasio-Cortez Fumbles Basic Civics TWICE In 1 Statement,” Ms Palin wrote.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez later made clear the reference to “two fallen” candidates jokingly applied to Ms Palin and Joe Lieberman, who ran as a vice-presidential candidate for the Democrats in 2000, but served in the senate as an independent.

In June, Mr Lieberman wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal in which he said Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s then candidacy for the House “hurts the party, congress and even America”.

On Monday, after a Republican state senator in Ohio shared footage of her verbal slip-up, Ms Ocasio-Cortez again hit back.

“Maybe instead of Republicans drooling over every minute of footage of me in slow-mo, waiting to chop up word slips that I correct in real-time, they actually step up enough to make the argument they want to make: That they don’t believe people deserve a right to healthcare,” she tweeted.

It came just days after a journalist for a right-wing US news outlet prompted criticism over a tweet about Ms Ocasio-Cortez's clothing.

Eddie Scarry of the Washington Times said the politician's jacket and coat did not "look like a girl who struggles", following reports she could not afford a flat in Washington DC.

"If I walked into Congress wearing a sack, they would laugh & take a picture of my backside," Ms Ocasio-Cortez responded. "If I walk in with my best sale-rack clothes, they laugh & take a picture of my backside.

"Dark hates light - that’s why you tune it out."

Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s bettering of Republicans on social media was praised by many of her supporters.

“A politician who authentically knows how to own people online is a game-changer,” one Twitter user wrote, while another said of the tweet about Ms Palin: “This is beyond shade. It’s advanced darkness. It’s a winter day in Alaska shade.”