Ocasio-Cortez Tells Off Kevin McCarthy: Blame White Supremacy, Not Video Games
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Sunday suggested that video games are to blame for mass shootings.
And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wasn’t having it.
Video games “dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals and others,” McCarthy said on Fox News shortly after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, left a combined total of at least 31 people dead.
“When you look at these photos of how [the El Paso shooting] took place, you can see the actions within video games and others,” McCarthy said.
But Ocasio-Cortez said the real problem is white supremacy, and argued that it's an issue Republicans won’t address because that would mean taking on part of their base:
Video games aren’t causing mass shootings, white supremacy is.
Sadly the GOP refuse to acknowledge that, bc their strategy relies on rallying a white supremacist base.
That‘s why the President hosts stadiums of people chanting “send her back”& targets Congress-members of color. https://t.co/8F51h46bOO— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 4, 2019
The suspected gunman in El Paso is a white man who reportedly shared a white supremacist manifesto online before the shooting. The hate-filled document attacked immigrants, claiming there is a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
President Donald Trump has also called immigration an “invasion,” including in his campaign ads on Facebook.
Ocasio-Cortez shared a tweet showing some of those ads:
Using the words “invasion,” “infestation,”w respect to a specific, targeted group of people, implying they are vermin: this is the language of white supremacy &it goes all the way to the top.
It’s not a matter of political stances. This is stoking hatred+endangering the country. https://t.co/zuziTB0c3u— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 5, 2019
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
