Within the wake of an assault on Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) husband by an alleged assailant who regularly posted right-wing conspiracy theories on-line, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has rebuked Republican Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy (California) for his relative silence on the difficulty.
On Twitter on Saturday morning, Ocasio-Cortez identified that McCarthy had not but commented on the assault that happened the day earlier than, and famous that he has a historical past of defending violent threats when they’re directed at his political enemies.
“Final 12 months, a GOP Congressman shared an outline of himself killing me,” Ocasio-Cortez mentioned, referring to an incident final 12 months when Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) posted an animated video on Twitter depicting him killing Ocasio-Cortez. “When the Home rose to censure, [McCarthy] defended him.”
“Yesterday, a person sharing that member’s rhetoric tried to assassinate the Speaker and her partner,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “What has [Mccarthy] mentioned? Nothing. That is who he’s.”
The person who allegedly attacked Paul Pelosi within the couple’s San Francisco house on Friday has posted concerning the 2020 election being stolen and different debunked conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic, QAnon and supposed “grooming” from the LGBTQ group.
McCarthy has but to make a proper public assertion on the assault, remaining silent on his Twitter account and failing to publish any press releases on the matter. He did downplay the assault on far proper outlet Breitbart on Saturday, nevertheless.
After Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet on Saturday morning, McCarthy mentioned that the assault was “fallacious” however shortly introduced up threats which have been waged in opposition to Republicans and much proper Supreme Court docket justices — a transparent try and make it appear as if left-wingers are simply as violent as right-wingers, which knowledge has proven is blatantly untrue.
Ocasio-Cortez highlighted in a separate tweet on Saturday morning that there’s a huge discrepancy between the best way Democrats and progressive politicians versus right-wing politicians reply to political violence.
Attaching a video from 2019 when white nationalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), then not an elected official, harassed Ocasio-Cortez and her staffers at Ocasio-Cortez’s workplace within the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez wrote, “Reminder: That is who the Republican Social gathering elects and elevates to positions of energy. That is how they act within the halls of Congress, and this [is] the instance they set for acolytes to comply with.”
“These individuals need media to [claim there is] ‘either side’ fascism. Don’t fall for it,” she continued. “For full context, one in every of Greene’s companions in that video was a part of the violent mob on January sixth — in case there was any doubt in any respect about how intently these fascists work with each other. Don’t give them an inch.”
McCarthy himself has privately admitted that he feared probably the most excessive right-wingers in his social gathering would incite violence in opposition to different members of Congress within the wake of the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol — however he nonetheless hasn’t renounced the violence of the Donald Trump militants who breached the Capitol that day.
Violence and threats from the suitable wing are on the rise; threats in opposition to Pelosi in particular have been frequent among the many proper for a few years. Over the previous 12 months, federal agencies have tracked a pointy uptick in political violence, the overwhelming majority of which comes from the suitable.
Republicans have repeatedly refused to sentence this violence — and in some circumstances, they’ve additionally celebrated it. As an example, they’ve uplifted Kyle Rittenhouse, the person who traveled throughout state strains and shot three individuals, killing two of them, who have been collaborating in protests for the Motion for Black Lives in 2020; after his trial final 12 months, Republican politicians floated the thought of hiring Rittenhouse as an intern and he was given a speaking slot at a distinguished conservative convention.
