Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is expressing “outrage” that 23 Republicans cast a “no” vote for the hate resolution the House of Representatives passed on Thursday. Democrats originally drafted it in response to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)’s antisemitic remarks but instead produced a document that condemned white supremacy and any speech that is anti-Muslim, anti-Jew, anti-black, or anti-LGBT.
“Where’s the outrage over the 23 GOP members who voted NO on a resolution condemning bigotry today?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Thursday.
“Oh, there’s none?” the tweet said. “Did they get called out, raked over, ambushed in halls and relentlessly asked why not?”
“No? Okay. Got it,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:
Where’s the outrage over the 23 GOP members who voted NO on a resolution condemning bigotry today?
Oh, there’s none?
Did they get called out, raked over, ambushed in halls and relentlessly asked why not?
No? Okay. Got it.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2019
Most of the GOP lawmakers who voted against it gave reasons for their opposition, including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), chairman of the House Republican Conference, who explained her no vote and responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet.
Yes, @SpeakerPelosi a picture is worth 1000 words. Pretending to condemn @IlhanMN’s anti-semitism while embracing her on this cover & claiming she embodies “millions of dreams to women & girls across America” is disgraceful and immoral. #NeverAgain. https://t.co/bvKkXgVF9z
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 4, 2019
“Yes, @SpeakerPelosi a picture is worth 1000 words,” Cheney tweeted. “Pretending to condemn @IlhanMN’s anti-semitism while embracing her on this cover & claiming she embodies “millions of dreams to women & girls across America” is disgraceful and immoral. #NeverAgain.”
Here’s the outrage: your party put a sham resolution on the floor designed to protect the anti-Semitic hate and bigotry of @IlhanMN. https://t.co/czw0GqA8jO
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 8, 2019
“Here’s the outrage: your party put a sham resolution on the floor designed to protect the anti-Semitic hate and bigotry of @IlhanMN,” Cheney tweeted.
Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) also explained his vote on social media.
H.Res.183 was spineless, watered down & filled w moral equivalency & double standards. Watch my floor speech explaining my NO vote to this resolution. Name names & remove Rep Omar from @HouseForeign. No double standards! pic.twitter.com/Rj17P6MHFI
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) March 7, 2019
“H.Res.183 was spineless, watered down & filled w moral equivalency & double standards. Watch my floor speech explaining my NO vote to this resolution. Name names & remove Rep Omar from @HouseForeign. No double standards!” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) tweeted about his vote.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) issued a statement on his vote on the resolution:
It is appalling that any type of anti-Semitic comment would be rationalized by Democrats. In fact, this resolution was solely on the House Floor today because of anti-Semitic remarks made by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), yet neither she nor her remarks are ever mentioned in the text. This resolution, edited repeatedly by House Democrats, was meant to condemn anti-Semitism; however, it became so generic that it lost its meaning or significance. I am grateful that the very last version of the bill gratuitously worked in the word ‘Christian’ once in the seven-page bill.
As I pointed out in my House floor speech, watering down any condemnation of anti-Semitic remarks is the way a holocaust begins. It needed to be condemned immediately before it starts us much further toward more widespread anti-Semitic hatred that leads to another attempted genocide.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) also tweeted about his vote and included a statement, saying the resolution “said virtually nothing”:
Following repeated anti-Semitic rhetoric from Rep Omar, House Democrats produced a watered-down resolution that said virtually nothing. I voted against the resolution because Democrats are rationalizing & protecting this anti-Semitic behavior.
STATEMENT: https://t.co/mO1FZMiRqd
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) March 8, 2019
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) called the resolution “an empty gesture” that did not name the person who inspired the need to issue it:
Without naming the offender, the chastisement is an empty gesture. I voted “no” to the watered down resolution. It’s time for Democrats to take real action against these anti -Jewish remarks.
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) March 7, 2019
But the media is putting Ocasio-Cortez’s sentiment into its reporting on Omar and the resolution, including Newsweek, which included a “Full List of 23 Republicans Who Voted Against Hatred Resolution.”
National Review reported:
“House Democrats have been under pressure for a week on anti-semitism but House Republicans have bailed them out,” tweeted Politico’s Jake Sherman. “An embarrassing moment for house gop.”
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post wrote in an article that Republicans like Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Lee Zeldin of New York, who voted against the measure, had “snatched back the mantle of racial and religious insensitivity, announcing to the world that they couldn’t possibly be against both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”
What’s odd, or perhaps not so odd, is that Rubin doesn’t include a single quotation from any Republican explaining why he or she voted against the measure.
“It’s hard to see how anyone could think their opposition to the resolution — not the defenses of Omar made by Nancy Pelosi, Jim Clyburn, and 2020 Democrats; nor Omar’s anti-Semitism itself — is the real scandal here,” the National Review concluded its analysis.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.