House freshmen Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) became a national lightning rod during her first year in Congress, but she may want to add the “offend” key to her permanent key ring.
During a press conference on Saturday to tout a new bill targeting the consequences of repeat crime involving electric scooters, the liberal firebrand blamed the “fascist” sheriff of Pascagoula, Miss., for arresting people who broke into ATMs at a Walgreens.
But AOC, or “AOC” as the crowd on the floor of the House kept calling her, was swiftly targeted for her remarks. Her comment prompted a scathing response from the National Federation of Independent Business and some Republican governors.
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“Congresswoman AOC’s casual dismissal of violent bank robbery is tone-deaf and offensive,” National Federation of Independent Business said in a statement. “I hope she won’t continue to make ill-informed and unprofessional comments that are not helpful to the well-being of hardworking Americans.”
AOC responded to the remarks on Twitter, calling the “small business” union “dog-whistle racism.”
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The latest attack on the freshman legislator came after she started to criticize Mississippi Sheriff Arthur Luckett, a well-known zealot for the anti-abortion movement, over his department’s arrests of gun-toting robbers who threatened to kill people in a Walgreens parking lot, before eventually robbing the store.
The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, for instance, reported that “at least 30 people were arrested, most for firearms possession,” before the suspects were seen on security video shouting “this is a hit list, so let’s go.”
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As the suspect’s story became more bizarre, any talk of a “hit list” ceased. Last week, the Times-Picayune reported that three of the six suspects later said they had been part of a “loot party” and were “trying to get money to buy marijuana.”
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AOC was the sole member of Congress to attend a high school campus protest against climate change, and sits on the select committee on Green New Deal.
Calls for AOC to resign from Congress do not sit well with many of her neighbors, who told The Post’s Paula Dwyer that Ocasio-Cortez is being treated like a “rock star” in the neighborhood.