Turns out the 'eat the babies' heckler at AOC's rally was a plant by conspiracy-peddling, pro-Trump LaRouche PAC

The heckler who told Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that the only way to solve climate change was to "eat the babies" was planted by a pro-Trump PAC founded by a conspiracy theorist.

What heckler?

During a town hall on Thursday evening, Ocasio-Cortez was confronted by a woman who declared that since the "Green [New] Deal ... is not going to solve the problem fast enough" the only solution was to "eat the babies."

"So I think your next campaign slogan has to be this: 'We've got to start eating babies.' We don't have enough time. There's too much CO2! All of you, you're, you're, you know you're pollutant. Too much CO2! We have to start now. Please," the woman shouted, removing her jacket to expose a T-shirt with the words, "Save the Planet. Eat the Children."

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez maintained her composure.

"No, thank you, thank you. We'll go ahead," she said calmly, as a volunteer moved the microphone away from the woman.

In a tweet Thursday evening, Ocasio-Cortez asked her opponents not to mock the woman, who she said "may have been suffering from a mental condition."

"Be a decent human human being and knock it off," she wrote.

What do we know now?

On Friday morning, the LaRouche PAC admitted in a tweet that it was behind the attempt to troll Ocasio-Cortez.

The PAC's namesake, Lyndon LaRouche (who died in February), was an anti-Semite and conspiracy theorist who believed, among other things, that Queen Elizabeth II was secretly trafficking drugs, that jazz was racist, and that the Holocaust was greatly exaggerated. He and his followers also believed that the conservative Heritage Foundation was part of a secretive collection of groups controlling the world. Although he called himself a "conservative Democrat," his wide-ranging theories and political positions found him at odds with both major political parties.

More recently, the PAC has pushed the idea the the United Kingdom was the driving force behind 2016 election interference. It has also come out in support of President Donald Trump.

On Thursday evening, the PAC quote tweeted a video of the incident, writing "LaRouchePAC trolls AOC, AOC doesn't rule out eating babies. #EatTheBabies."

This episode echoes much earlier signs held by LaRouche supporters to mock liberal issues that read "Feed Jane Fonda To The Whales."

How did AOC respond?

After the news broke that the woman was a LaRouche plant, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: "Turns out the woman yelling was a Trump supporter. Doesn't rule out potential mental issue (Drs do that) but good to know they were not in crisis. Earlier this year I was stalked & very nearly hurt by a disturbed person. I don't take chances & immediately try to de-escalate."