13 House GOP members join demand that AOC apologize to Ted Cruz for ‘almost had me murdered’ tweet

“It has come to our attention that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent out a tweet in which she accused Senator Cruz, in essence, of attempted murder,” the letter said. “We believe this 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. We ask you to call on her to immediately apologize and retract her comments.”

It continued: “It is our sincere hope that we all stop this heightened rhetoric and move forward to actually do the work the American people sent us here to do.”

In addition to Roy, the Republicans who signed the letter were Reps. Randy Weber of Texas, Pat Fallon of Texas, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Jody Hice of Georgia, Doug LaMalfa of California, Pete Sessions of Texas, Michael Burgess of Texas, Ronny Jackson of Texas, Barry Moore of Alabama, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Yvette Herrell of New Mexico, and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina.

Roy first sent a letter to Pelosi demanding that Ocasio-Cortez apologize on Thursday. Roy, a former top Senate aide to Cruz before winning his House seat in 2018, said that if she does not apologize, “we will be forced to find alternative means to condemn this regrettable statement.”

In a radio interview last week, Roy said he had talked about the issue with Ocasio-Cortez, who won her seat in the House in 2018 by beating a member of the House Democratic leadership in the primary.

“We’ve had a heartfelt, sincere conversation,” Roy told the Todd Starnes Show on the radio on Friday. “She has very sincere concerns about some of the rhetoric, some of the pictures that have been posted and stuff. But a lot of these are things that wouldn’t necessarily bother you or me.”

But he does not appear to be making progress on coming to an agreement about whether her statement was appropriate.

“I am trying to find ways in which we can agree to disagree, and we’re having a tough time doing that, I’ll be honest,” Roy said. “I’m trying to figure out how to cut through this very strong, clear cultural divide and figure out how we can engage in speech and debate under the Constitution and begin to lead this country forward.”

Cruz last week offered an olive branch to Ocasio-Cortez by saying in a tweet that he “fully agre[ed]” that trading app Robinhood, which was at the center of unusual trading activity around GameStop and other stocks, should be investigated.

In response, Ocasio-Cortez blasted Cruz for his objection to certifying the Electoral College results, which she blames for encouraging or sparking the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Cruz led a group of 11 senators calling for an “electoral commission” to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the Nov. 3 election results.

“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,” she tweeted.

Cruz has since distanced himself from the battle over voter fraud concerns, saying in a podcast recently: “President Trump’s rhetoric, I think, went way too far over the line.”

Roy, though he said he thought Ocasio-Cortez’s comment went too far, was not on the same side as Cruz during the Electoral College objection fight. He publicly opposed moves by his Republican colleague to object to electors and attempted to expose hypocrisy in the move through a parliamentary procedure before Jan. 6.