Ocasio-Cortez rebuffs Cruz’s olive branch
‘You almost had me murdered,’ the New York Democrat claps back at the Texas Republican senator on Twitter
If U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was trying to extend an olive branch to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it certainly didn’t go as planned.
Cruz took to social media to agree with Ocasio-Cortez and her call for congressional hearings into how and why a financial services company — Robinhood Markets Inc. — decided to block retail investors from trading stocks.
But after Cruz tweeted out to his 4.2 million followers that he agreed with her, Ocasio-Cortez fired back.
“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out,” she said, referring to Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 shortly after Cruz led an effort in the Senate to delay certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
The indignation in Ocasio-Cortez’s reply mirrors that of other Democrats in Congress, who impeached former President Donald Trump a second time after the attack on the Capitol and have pilloried both Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, whom they accuse of spurring the insurrection by giving credence to Trump’s unsubstantiated voter fraud claims.
The partisan divide over the riot has only deepened as new details emerge about the violence of the Jan. 6 attack. Union officials representing the Capitol Police reported earlier this week that 140 officers were injured in the riot, including one who was stabbed with a metal fence stake. An officer was one of five killed.
In court records, prosecutors say they’ve found evidence of several death threats circulated on social media by people who took part in the insurrection. Federal authorities this week announced charges against Garret Miller, of Dallas County. During the deadly riots, Miller sent a tweet saying “Assassinate AOC,” according to court documents. Another man, who traveled to Washington for the rally with an assault rifle and other weapons, has been charged with threatening to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In her rebuttal to Cruz, Ocasio-Cortez called for him to resign: “Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed,” she wrote. “In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who has ties in Texas, wasn’t finished.
“You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Cruz has voiced no regrets about his objection to Biden’s certification. He has said he was trying to build confidence in the results by setting them aside for 10 days while an “emergency audit” could be conducted to settle Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen. Cruz’s effort was initially backed by 11 other Republicans, though six dropped their objections after the riot.
It’s not the first time Ocasio-Cortez and Cruz have battled it out on Twitter since the riots. She was one of the first people to call him out for his campaign sending out fundraising texts during the siege on the Capitol while she and other members of Congress were being rushed away from rioters.
Cruz explained that it was an automated text that he immediately told his campaign to halt after it had been sent out.