Ocasio-Cortez Slams Democratic Leadership for Rebuking Ilhan Omar: Feeds Into ‘Right-Wing Vitriol’
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came to colleague Ilhan Omar’s defense Sunday and pushed back against House Democratic leadership for their public rebuke.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats called out Omar for tweeting, “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”
A number of Democrats said she was pushing a false equivalency. Omar put out a statement to clarify her comments, and Pelosi said on CNN Sunday, “She clarified, we thanked her, end of subject.”
Ocasio-Cortez appeared later in the program with CNN’s Dana Bash, who asked the New York Democrat about her tweet coming to Omar’s defense and blasting other Democrats condemning her.
Pretty sick & tired of the constant vilification, intentional mischaracterization, and public targeting of @IlhanMN coming from our caucus.
They have no concept for the danger they put her in by skipping private conversations & leaping to fueling targeted news cycles around her.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 10, 2021
“What exactly did your fellow Democrats mischaracterize?” Bash asked. “And are you saying that they are to blame for some threats against her?”
Ocasio-Cortez said Omar’s comments were “absolutely mischaracterized” because “she was very clearly speaking about the ICC investigations which name these four actors in two suits.”
“To assert that this was equating these two I believe was not a generous interpretation whatsoever,” she continued.
And we know that, you know, these very intense news cycles, which by the way started — this whole hubbub started with right-wing news outlets taking what she said out of context. And when we feed into that, it adds legitimacy to a lot of this kind of right wing vitriol. It absolutely kind of increases that target. And as someone who has experienced that, you know, it’s very difficult to communicate the scale and how dangerous that is.
You can watch above, via CNN.
