After an exchange with a covert Trump supporter during a local town hall event in her congressional district Thursday night kicked off the viral hashtag #EatTheBabies, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for compassion and told right-wingers waging attacks to “knock it off” in the name of decency.

The incident began when a questioner in the audience asked Ocasio-Cortez about the planetary climate crisis. The woman warned that “we only have a few months left” to act and began to speak about the need to eat human babies in order to solve global warming. As the woman spoke, she removed her coat to reveal a t-shirt that read: “Save the Planet, Eat the Children.”

Though it was obvious the congresswoman, her aides, and others in the room were growing increasingly uncomfortable, the woman was treated with sympathy and dignity as the microphone was taken away. Ocasio-Cortez then attempted to address the issues raised while also seeming to reassure the crowd—and the woman herself—that “if we act in a positive way there’s space for hope. We are never beyond hope.”

Following the event, as footage of the incident began to spread online, mostly pushed by right-wing journalists and media operatives, Ocasio-Cortez took to her Twitter account to acknowledge what had occurred.

“This person may have been suffering from a mental condition,” she added, “and it’s not okay that the right-wing is mocking her and potentially mak[ing] her condition or crisis worse. Be a decent human being and knock it off.”

Some observers surmised the individual may have been acting the part of someone who was unstable to troll the congresswoman in order to discredit her support for a Green New Deal, but it would have been difficult to know that in the moment. Reporting now suggests the whole thing was staged by a pro-Trump group: