Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is declaring that there are “no consequences” in the Republican caucus for violence, misogyny, insurrection, and racism.
The Democratic lawmaker told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes late Wednesday that she “senses” a “profound difference” between the Republican caucus last term and the Republican caucus of this term.
She continued, “That difference was that it really felt that last term, the Republican caucus was one of extreme fealty to Donald Trump. There were some that were true believers, others that simply remained quiet out of cowardice and out of fear of the president’s retribution.”
Ocasio-Cortez then declared that there are “legitimate white supremacist sympathizers” in the Republican caucus now.
“This term, there are legitimate white supremacist sympathizers that sit at the heart and at the core of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives, and when you see someone like the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of the Republican Party respond to white supremacist vitriol coming from his own members not with censure like they did with Representative Steve King of Iowa, not with being stripped of committees, not with any consequence, you have to wonder who actually has that power.”
Watch Ocasio-Cortez’s interview below:
“There are no consequences in the Republican caucus for violence. No consequences for racism. No consequences for misogyny. No consequences for insurrection. And no consequences means that they condone it. It means that that silence is acceptance," says @AOC. pic.twitter.com/4jkKfb718K
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) January 28, 2021
Pointing to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Ocasio-Cortez said, “And it increasingly seems, unfortunately, that, in the House Republican caucus, Kevin McCarthy answers to these QAnon members of Congress, not the other way around, and that is something that frankly needs to be said.”
“There are no consequences in the Republican caucus for violence. There’s no consequences for racism, no consequences for misogyny, no consequences for insurrection. And no consequences means that they condone it. It means that that silence is acceptance.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Greene, a freshman representative, to be on a “watch list” not in Congress after a report said that Greene seemed to support executing top Democrats in old Facebook posts. Greene hit back at CNN’s reporting.
A video, from March of 2019, also surfaced this week showing Greene confronting Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg and calling him a “coward.” She told CNN that the video was taken while she was in Washington, D.C., “going from office to office in the Senate to oppose the radical gun control agenda that David Hogg was pushing.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s spokesperson Mark Bednar told Axios on reporting of previous remarks made by Greene, “These comments are deeply disturbing and Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman about them.”