AOC says US also ran concentration camps during World War II

“No, no. While concentration camps were employed, during that time concentration camps were also utilized all over the world including in the United States, with the Japanese internment,” she added.

Ocasio-Cortez touched off controversy when she said in an Instagram live video Monday night that the treatment of immigrants on the border was comparable to the Holocaust.

“The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity that ‘Never Again’ means something,” she said, repeating a slogan that became popular after the Holocaust.

Ocasio-Cortez also repeated her claim Tuesday on Twitter while also saying there is a difference between concentration camps and death camps.

“This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying,” she said. “And for the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps. Concentration camps are considered by experts as ‘the mass detention of civilians without trial.’ And that’s exactly what this administration is doing.”

The freshman congresswoman was forced to defend her comments on Twitter through most of Tuesday after she was attacked by Republican lawmakers and journalists who said she was downplaying the Holocaust.

“Please @AOC do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said.

Ocasio-Cortez responded saying it was Cheney who needed to “brush up” on history.

“Also @Liz_Cheney, the fact that you employed the horrifying word “exterminated” here (co-opting the language of the oppressor) tells us that it’s *you* that needs to brush up on your reading. Hope you enjoy defending concentration camps. I won’t back down fighting against them,” Ocasio-Cortez responded Tuesday.

Mark Morgan, the acting director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called Ocasio-Cortez’s comments “completely inappropriate.”

“It’s completely inappropriate, it’s reckless, it’s irresponsible, it’s misinformed, and it’s flat-out wrong,” Morgan told Hill.tv’s Saagar Enjeti.