Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to the House floor Thursday (February 2) to let her Republican colleagues know that they were “targeting women of color” by voting to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Affairs committee. And AOC didn’t hold back.
In the past, Omar, a Muslim American, had been criticized by members of both parties about comments she made about Israel, which some deemed as antisemitic.
Prior to AOC’s strong remarks rebuking the Republicans’ vote, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said the resolution to oust Omar from her committee assignment came down to “consistency.”
“I am being consistent here, and I hope my colleagues will do the same to show that this is about consistency and accountability,” Malliotakis said. “We should not have an individual with those views on the committee that is tasked with representing our country and our Congress to foreign nations.”
AOC responded sharply when she was given the floor. “Consistency? There is nothing consistent with the Republican Party’s continued attacks, except for the racism and incitement of violence against women of color in this body,” AOC said.
She also criticized Republicans for allowing some of their own members to serve on committees even after they had allegedly threatened her life. AOC was referring to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) who tweeted an animated clip in 2021 where he is killing the congresswoman. For that post, he was stripped from his committee assignments. However, with Republicans back in power this session, he was placed on the Oversight and Accountability committee and Natural Resources committee last month.
“I had a member of the Republican caucus threaten my life and the Republican caucus rewarded him with one of the most prestigious committee assignments in this Congress,” AOC said. “Don’t tell me this is about consistency.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also referenced Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for her antisemitic remarks in 2018 when she claimed that the wildfires in California were started by “Jewish space lasers.”
