Ocasio-Cortez demands House and Senate pass 'clean humanitarian' bill for border children with 'no tricks'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told CNN's Jake Tapper Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is trying to ram through a bill that does nothing more than fund more military on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The House passed their version of a bill for humanitarian aid to get soap and supplies to children on the border, but it was denied by the Senate. McConnell then pushed through his own bill, which AOC said plays on the fact that members are trying to get back to their districts for Independence Day celebrations. She said she's willing to stay and get it right.

"As you know, the news just came down. I haven't had the opportunity to look at the Senate version. However, I will say I would only support this type of funding if there are strong enough guardrails, strong enough measures so that the administration has to use any money that's appropriated specifically to improve the living conditions of the children who are being impacted by this detention," the freshman congresswoman told Tapper.

She said that the first thing she hopes they do is end detentions entirely but until that is done, she at least wants to get supplies to the border.

"We need to end this detention. I also recognize that we want to make sure that children have what they need," she went on. "The problem is that this administration has a habit and a pattern of taking money that was meant to be spent in one way, and using it in another way."

Her example was the billion-dollar appropriation he was given for border security that he used to build a small piece of his wall.

"So I understand the concern very much that, you know, you need to be sure that there are enough guard rails in place that they could take this money that's supposed to do go to the living conditions of children and spend it in another way, and they need to accelerate getting these children out of these facilities and into the homes of relatives that live in the United States, or care givers in their homes that will be better living conditions. We don't want to prolong children living in these types of conditions," she explained.

"I believe what we should ideally be doing is passing a pure humanitarian bill to get money straight to the kids," she told Tapper. "No tricks, no riders, no poison pills. Toothpaste, tooth brushes, soap and make sure the kids are protected as well as having the resources funded. The fact this is even a game is frankly a huge, huge disappointment."

She said she believes a bill like that would pass.

Watch her full comments below: