On Jan. 6, thousands of right-wing extremists stormed the Capitol building after former President Donald Trump lost the election, believing that the results had been rigged due to baseless conspiracy theories pushed by Trump and several other GOP leaders. The violent riot left five dead and put a number of elected officials who were on the grounds in grave danger. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of the intended targets of the attack, and she has been speaking out against the danger that she and her colleagues were exposed to.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was one of the Republicans that promoted the ideas that fomented the attack, and Ocasio-Cortez recently sparred with Cruz on Twitter after he seemingly agreed with her about the Robinhood overreach with the GameStop stock. Ocasio-Cortez responded to his tweet, expressing her frustration with Cruz over the lack of accountability following the Capitol attack. “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 wrote. “Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”
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“While you conveniently talk about ‘moving on,’ a second Capitol police officer lost their life yesterday in the still-raging aftermath of the attacks you had a role in,” she continued in a second tweet. “This isn’t a joke. We need accountability, and that includes a new Senator from Texas.”
“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,” she concluded. “In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks. Happy to work with other GOP on this.”
As a response to this tweet, Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy has demanded that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi force Ocasio-Cortez to apologize for the “you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago” tweet. “[S]he accused Senator Ted Cruz, in essence, of attempted murder,” Roy wrote to Pelosi. “As a member of this body who disagreed with ‘objections’ to the electors and who has expressed publicly my concerns about the events leading to January 6th, it is completely unacceptable behavior for a Member of Congress to make this kind of scurrilous charge against another member in the House or Senate for simply engaging in speech and debate regarding electors as they interpreted the Constitution.”
“I ask you to call on her to immediately apologize and retract her comments,” Roy wrote. “If Representative Ocasio-Cortez does not apologize immediately, we will be forced to find alternative means to condemn this regrettable statement.” Ocasio-Cortez and Pelosi have yet to comment.
