Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Saturday linked Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s commentary to death threats against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
“Understand when Jeanine Pirro goes on Fox + rallies people to think hijabs are threatening, it leads to this,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet. “Folks who imply we’re “bad” for politics, the party, the country, etc. have no idea the threats we deal w/ because of that kind of language. Talk policy, not personal.”
Understand when Jeanine Pirro goes on Fox + rallies people to think hijabs are threatening, it leads to this.
Folks who imply we’re “bad” for politics, the party, the country, etc. have no idea the threats we deal w/ because of that kind of language.
Talk policy, not personal. https://t.co/udFg3LMdgB
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 7, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez shared a link to a story about a 55-year-old New York man who was arrested and charged with threatening to assault and kill Omar, one of the first two Muslim women serving in Congress. He allegedly asked a staff member in Omar’s office if she worked for the Muslim Brotherhood and called Omar a terrorist.
Pirro came under fire last month for suggesting that Omar’s hijab means that she is against the U.S. Constitution.
“Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran, 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t molested,” Pirro said on her show. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?”
Pirro later clarified that her “intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution.”
Fox News later condemned Pirro’s comment and temporarily suspended her show.
“We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly,” a Fox News statement said.
Omar retweeted a message expressing a similar sentiment to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet this weekend. “Anti-Muslim rhetoric from #trump @GOP @FoxNews and others can kill,” the tweet said.
[Related: Trump calls on Fox News to ‘bring back’ Jeanine Pirro after her show goes off the air]
