Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Monday that she will not apologize for saying after the Capitol riot that Sen. Ted Cruz “almost had me murdered.”
“That’s not the quote, and I will not apologize for what I said,” the New York Democrat said in response to a question about one of her tweets directed at Cruz late last month.
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez posted on Jan. 28. “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.”
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
The two members of Congress have engaged in a back-and-forth on Twitter over Ocasio-Cortez’s contention that Cruz and fellow Republicans incited last month’s Capitol Hill siege by alleging widespread voter fraud in the November election.
Over a dozen Republican House members have called on Ocasio-Cortez to apologize for her remarks about Cruz.
“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 Republicans wrote in a letter. “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.”
Ocasio-Cortez discussed her experience during the Capitol Hill siege in an Instagram Live post last week, revealing that she is a sexual assault survivor and claiming that the tactics used by Republicans in the aftermath were the same “tactics that abusers use.”
Some, including Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, have questioned Ocasio-Cortez’s characterization of events during the Jan. 6 riot and pointed out that the congresswoman’s office was not in the Capitol but rather in a neighboring building.
Ocasio-Cortez took issue with those criticisms and accused Mace of exploiting the situation for personal gain.
