Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Monday joined the chorus of Democrat lawmakers blaming President Donald Trump for the deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas, over the weekend, saying his discourse on immigration is “directly responsible” for the tragedy. The freshman congresswoman did not address how the Dayton, Ohio, shooter echoed her own controversial rhetoric on social media.
Ocasio-Cortez took aim at the president during her remarks at a vigil in Brooklyn paying tribute to the shooting victims of El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.
“I’m tired of the questioning if the president is racist. He is,” Ocasio-Cortez told nearly 500 attendees, reported the New York Daily News.
The far-left “Squad” member then claimed white supremacy is a global “international terrorist problem” that must be stopped.
“There are so many different issues that are weaving themselves into a braid of violence into our country. One of them is white supremacist terrorism,” she stated, seemingly referring to the Churchchrist, New Zealand gunman, who killed 51 people in two consecutive shooting attacks at mosques. 2020 White House hopefuls Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and former Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX) have also attempted to tie the president to the shooting.
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments come three days after a gunman killed 20 people at an El Paso Walmart, with the death toll later climbing to 22. The suspect, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, has been charged with capital murder, making him eligible for the death penalty. The Justice Department is weighing bringing hate crime charges against Crusius, which also carry the death penalty. He is believed to have posted a manifesto to 8chan railing against Hispanic immigrants prior to carrying out the attack. Hours later, another gunman killed nine people, including his own sister, after opening fire in a busy bar district in Dayton, Ohio. Police killed gunman 24-year-old Connor Betts within one minute after he began shooting.
As Breitbart News reported, Betts’ Twitter footprint shows he held far-left politics, and was a supporter of 2020 White House hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and re-tweeted a list purporting to contained names of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff:
Twitter suspended the alleged account, @iamthespookster, on Sunday evening after several outlets had reported it belonged to the Ohio shooter, who murdered nine people and wounded dozens more before being fatally shot by police.
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The @iamthespookster account also re-tweeted a post by a Twitter user going by the name “@poohcowboy_drew,” who produced “a list of people who work for ICE” and encouraged readers to harass them into quitting their jobs.
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The @iamthespookster account also re-tweeted a similar post by another user, a tongue-in-cheek tweet urging followers to disable ICE vehicles.
The account also retweeted at least one account referring to immigrant detention centers as “concentration camps,” echoing the language of Ocasio-Cortez. It also appears he called the far-left activist who firebombed a Tacoma, Washingon, ICE center a “martyr.”
On Monday, President Trump condemned the pair of shootings, declaring the United States “must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.”
“These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America,” the president said.
“These barbaric slaughters are an assault upon our communities, an attack upon our nation, and a crime against all of humanity,” he added. “We are outraged and sickened by this monstrous evil.”
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