Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Out Steve King’s Tweet About Visiting Auschwitz
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed white supremacist Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Sunday after he snidely went after her for calling detention facilities for immigrant children in the U.S. “concentration camps.”
King piously counseled her to accept an open invitation from a Holocaust remembrance group to visit Auschwitz, as he said he had.
“I went with a deep understanding of the Shoah and had a profound personal experience,” he tweeted to Ocasio-Cortez.
One problem, the congresswoman snapped back: “The last time you went on this trip it was reported that you also met [with] fringe Austrian neo-Nazi groups to talk shop.”
King reportedly met with a group founded by a former Nazi SS officer last year while visiting Europe on a trip paid for by From the Depths, the same group that has invited Ocasio-Cortez to tour Auschwitz.
The Anti-Defamation League demanded afterward that GOP leadership condemn King and remove him from his chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee. He was finally stripped of his positions on the judiciary and the agriculture committees earlier this year, after he asked during a New York Times interview what was offensive about white supremacy.
Ocasio-Cortez added that she has “absolutely zero patience for completely certified, card-carrying and flag-waving racists. ... They can take their little tiki torches somewhere else.”
The last time you went on this trip it was reported that you also met w/ fringe Austrian neo-Nazi groups to talk shop.
So I’m going to have to decline your invite. But thank you for revealing to all how transparently the far-right manipulates these moments for political gain. https://t.co/TQkaPEESoD— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 23, 2019
I have absolutely zero patience for completely certified, card-carrying and flag-waving racists. None. 🚫
They can take their little tiki torches somewhere else.
We don’t give them an inch, a second, a sliver of sunlight nor the time of day. And neither should you.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 23, 2019
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) also got caught in Ocasio-Cortez’s takedown. “Perhaps you should come collect your colleague before more members of your caucus start saying the quiet parts loud,” she wrote.
Hey @Liz_Cheney, you’re the GOP Conference Chair - perhaps you should come collect your colleague before more members of your caucus start saying the quiet parts loud
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 23, 2019
King has not replied to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets.
But several Twitter users joined the congresswoman in attacking him, and they supported her view that child detention sites are comparable to concentration camps.
I also went there and have Family that died there. ANY Jew that can look the other way right now and not speak out against the atrocities that are happening at the border especially ,at the children’s camps ,should hang their heads in shame. You disgust me.
— Rosanna Arquette (@RoArquette) June 23, 2019
"These mattresses are perfectly comfortable."
— Name cannot be blank (@punchosaurus) June 23, 2019
If you had a deep understanding and a profound personal experience, you would be working to reunite those children with their parents and protest the Trump DOJ argument that toothbrushes and soap and beds were not necessary for sanitation and safety. Shame on you.
— Nell Minow (@nminow) June 23, 2019
Steve King giving religious/racial sensitivity tips 😂 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂(catch my breath) 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
— Manny Medina (@MannyDMedina) June 23, 2019
That was the same trip you met with Neo-Nazis, right?https://t.co/1aASSi02IA
— Deborah Wolfson (@HowlinWolfson) June 23, 2019
And you did an interview with people with Neo-Nazi ties DURING the visit. So, obviously it meant nothing to you. https://t.co/uTvOHA30hc
— Barbara Grandberry (@lenetra806) June 23, 2019
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.