Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed President Trump for creating a national environment that is placing millions of Americans in danger on Thursday.
The New York Democrat was reacting to a Trump rally held Wednesday night in North Carolina. At the rally, Trump bashed “the squad” of freshman Democratic congresswomen, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, for her past comments that many deemed anti-Semitic.
While Trump criticized Omar, the crowd broke into chants of “send her back.”
“I think the president put millions of Americans in danger last night. His rhetoric is endangering lots of people,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside of her Washington office. “This is not just about threats to individual members of Congress, but it is about creating a volatile environment in this country through violent rhetoric that puts anyone like Ilhan, anyone who believes in the rights of all people, in danger. And I think that he has a responsibility for that environment.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments come days after a man was shot and killed by police while attacking an Immigration and Customs Enforcement migrant detention center in Washington state.
The man left behind a manifesto in which he claimed he was fighting “against the forces of evil.” He called the detention center he attacked a “concentration camp,” echoing the language Ocasio-Cortez used to describe ICE facilities on June 17.
