Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R) on Wednesday for tolerating bigotry from members of his caucus against Democratic women of color.
“Kevin McCarthy is so desperate to be speaker that he is working with his Ku Klux Klan caucus to look aside & allow violent targeting of woc [women of color] members of Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
She linked to a video of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) playing a recording of a death threat she received this week in the wake of Islamophobic attacks from extremist Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
Ocasio-Cortez said that people don’t understand the scale, intensity and volume of threats targeting Omar, adding, “this cannot be ignored.”
“GOP are given freedom to incite without consequence,” the New York lawmaker wrote. “They don’t have to pay for the security required from their acts- we do. They make money off it.”
Just before Thanksgiving, Boebert joked to supporters in Colorado about Omar being a terrorist weeks after describing the Muslim lawmaker on the House floor as a member of the “jihad squad,” an Islamophobic reference to the “Squad,” a group of progressive Democratic lawmakers of color.
And in September, Boebert suggested Omar was a suicide bomber at another event, saying, “She doesn’t have a backpack, she wasn’t dropping it and running, so we’re good.”
McCarthy has ignored calls to condemn or hold Boebert to account for her hateful remarks. He has repeatedly dodged speaking out against even the most extreme members of his party.
Ocasio-Cortez was also targeted by a far-right Republican last month when Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), a lawmaker that has repeatedly been linked to white nationalists, posted an anti-immigration anime video edited to depict him killing her.
He was censured by the House for doing so, but only two Republicans ― Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) ― supported the measure.