Alexandria Ocasio Cortez P
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday once again called on Sen. Ted Cruz to resign, while taking the Texan to task for his role in inciting the January 6 attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol that the congresswoman says nearly ended her life.
Her suggestion followed Democrats' call for a congressional investigation of Robinhood, the free securities trading app at the center of the GameStop controversy, and what Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called its 'decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.'
FILE - In this July 23, 2020, file image from video, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks on the House floor on Capitol Hill in Washington. Our offices are temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Constituents can still receive assistance by calling the District or the D.C. Office or by sending a message through this website. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., recently moved into a luxury apartment complex in Washington, D.C. That does not offer the affordable housing units that were a key plank in the New York.
'Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren't trying to get me killed.'
—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez P Garcia
As Common Dreamsreported earlier Thursday, the retail video game store GameStop 'is now at the center of an explosive fiasco on Wall Street in which major investment firms and hedge funds got taken to the cleaners by users of an online message board, namely the Reddit sub-page r/WallStreetBets, who mobilized collectively to drive up the company's stock price at a moment when many large, institutional investors had placed large bets for it to go down.'
Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted that he agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's assessment, but she rejected the fleeting display of bipartisanship in light of the events of January 6.
As Mother Jones' Inae Oh put it, 'After Ted Cruz attempted to get cute and show some rare agreement with the New York congresswoman by joining her criticism of the trading app Robinhood for blocking certain GameStop trades, Ocasio-Cortez promptly told Cruz to fuck off.'
Here's what it looked like:
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.
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. https://t.co/4mVREbaqqm
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
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.
In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks.
Happy to work with other GOP on this.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
That wasn't the end of it. After Cruz reportedly fumed about 'partisan rage and anger on the Democratic side,' Ocasio-Cortez shot back: 'Now why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost [people's] lives? What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug?'
“We need healing + unity, but I will not take any responsibility for my actions, nor will I acknowledge the contributions my lies made to the violence or the harm that it caused, nor do I believe anyone should be held accountable. But if you’re mad at that you’re divisive.” - GOP
Get our best delivered to your inbox.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
Much proverbial popcorn was passed:
looking forward to Ted Cruz' op-ed about how AOC is censoring him by telling him to STFU https://t.co/ZFjlFIXApL
— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) January 28, 2021
It’s getting weirder and weirder.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) January 28, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez described the seriousness of the events of January 6 in a poignant Instagram Live video earlier this month in which she called the Capitol attack 'a pretty traumatizing event.'
Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers were inside the Capitol and in the process of certifying the Electoral College vote for President Joe Biden when a massive mob, inflamed by Trump's lies and conspiracy theories about a 'stolen election' also spread by Cruz and other Republicans, overran the complex.
Alexandria Ocasio Wikipedia
Five people died in the ensuing mayhem as lawmakers—including numerous maskless coronavirus-spreading Republicans and at least one GOP member who has menaced Squad members before—scrambled for the security of a safe room.
'I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die,' Ocasio-Cortez said in the video. 'I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.'
Alexandria Ocasio-cortez Plays Among Us
Ocasio-Cortez subsequently called on Cruz, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and other GOP inciters to resign.
'Sen. Cruz, you must accept responsibility for how your craven, self-serving actions contributed to the deaths of four people yesterday,' she tweeted on January 7, hours before United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died from injuries caused by the mob.
“Let's bring up a vote to expel Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley from the Senate.” -@AOCpic.twitter.com/rHvZgpGoHX
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) January 22, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez has since repeated calls for Cruz, Hawley, and other insurrectionist Republicans to be expelled from Congress.
A Democratic Socialist candidate secured a historic victory in a New York congressional primary last week, winning the Democratic bid over a prominent, 10-term incumbent Congressman. Following this race, you may want to know more about what Democratic Socialists believe and what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the victorious candidate, envisions for the future of the United States.
According to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)'s website, Democratic Socialists believe that democracy and socialism can coexist. Moreover, they support the notion that 'both the economy and society should be run democratically — to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few,' and argue that extensive changes need to occur to ensure that these institutions are made more equitable and democratic.
Ocasio-Cortez explained her take on democratic socialism during an interview with Stephen Colbert on June 29. Ocasio-Cortez emphasized that, for her, democratic socialism means ensuring that everyone's fundamental rights and needs are met and respected. As the congressional candidate described:
For me, democratic socialism is about ... I believe that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live ... Seems pretty simple. So what that means to me is health care as a human right. It means that every child no matter where you are born should have access to a college or trade school education if they so choose it. I think that no person should be homeless, if we can have public structures and public policies to allow for people to have homes and food and lead a dignified life in the United States.
Ocasio-Cortez's campaign platform reflects some of these views. For example, she supports 'improved and expanded' Medicare for all and free public college tuition along with one-time student debt cancellation. She has also indicated her support for housing as a human right and for the notion that anyone who is 'willing and able to work' should be able to find employment.
Alexandria Ocasio-cortez Pics Bikini Photo
The Congressional candidate further discussed her thoughts on democratic socialism during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. She emphasized that, while she identifies as a Democratic Socialist, she is not necessarily encouraging other Democrats to do the same, noting that, for her, shared values override party labels. As Ocasio-Cortez put it:
It’s [democratic socialism] part of what I am; it’s not all of what I am ... And I think that’s a very important distinction ... I'm not trying to impose an ideology on all several hundred members of Congress. But I do think that, once again, it's not about selling an ‘-ism‘ or an ideology or a label or a color. This is about selling our values.
Following Ocasio-Cortez's victory in New York's Democratic primary, the DSA reported a significant spike in memberships. According to the Daily Beast, on June 27, the day after Ocasio-Cortez's win, the organization had 1,152 new memberships. According to Lawrence Dreyfuss, a program associate for the DSA who spoke with the Daily Beast, this represents 35 times more membership sign-ups than those on an average day.
The Daily Beast also reported that the DSA similarly grew in size after Donald Trump was elected president in Nov. 2016. According to the outlet, in the month after Trump's election, the party had around six times more membership sign-ups than during the month prior. Moreover, since Trump's election, the DSA has grown in size from around 5,000 members in Nov. 2016 to around 40,000 members.
Overall, it seems that the DSA is certainly making waves in the Trump era — and Ocasio-Cortez's victory last week serves as an indicator of the appeal of its platform to many members of the public. The DSA's members, and Americans more broadly, will likely be closely observing to see if Ocasio-Cortez will secure a win in November's general election.