During an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) defended Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) comments that seemed to equate the United States and Israel with terrorist organizations, which caused other Democrats to release a statement condemning Omar’s comments.
Referring to a tweet AOC made claiming Omar’s comments were mischaracterized, Bash asked, “First question is, what exactly did your fellow Democrats mischaracterize? And are you saying that they are to blame for some threats against her?”
“I believe that her comments were absolutely mischaracterized. She was very clearly speaking about the ICC investigations, which name these four actors in two suits,” AOC said, referring to Omar’s controversial comment on five different actors. “And they name them in context of events that happened in Afghanistan with the United States and the Taliban, and in Palestine with Hamas and the government of Israel.”
“And we know that these very intense news cycles, which, by the way, started, this whole hubbub started with right-wing news outlets taking what she said out of context,” AOC claimed. “And when we feed into that, it adds legitimacy to a lot of this kind of right-wing vitriol. It absolutely kind of increases that target. And as someone who has experienced that, it’s very difficult to communicate the scale and how dangerous that is.”
In a tweet last week, Omar wrote, “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”
A group of a dozen Jewish Democrats released a statement condemning Omar’s comments.
“The United States and Israel are imperfect and, like all democracies, at times deserving of critique, but false equivalencies give cover to terrorist groups,” the group said. “We urge Congresswoman Omar to clarify her words placing the U.S. and Israel in the same category as Hamas and the Taliban.”
