Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said Thursday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that House Republicans voting for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee over her comments about Israel was “racist targeting.”
Guest anchor John Berman said, “Representative Omar said today the vote today was about revenge. Is that how you see it?”
Ocasio-Cortez said, “Absolutely, I think this was about revenge. This was about petty politics. But also, I think it’s also important to state that was not just about Republicans trying to feed a base that they have already primed for years under Donald Trump with racism, misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia. Also, it represents a stripping of an important perspective on the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Ilhan Omar, as a refugee, as an immigrant, as the only hijab woman in the United States Congress, represents. And that perspective is critical in terms of American foreign policy.”
She added, “In the case of Ilhan Omar, I believe that hers is absolutely especially amplified with racist targeting because this is what fed their base. This is the same representative that Donald Trump held rallies around saying send her back to quote, unquote ‘her country.’ Her country is the United States of America. She is an American.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
