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Ocasio-Cortez Says Conservatives Are Inciting Violence Against the Left

Ocasio-Cortez also tweeted that an email by Ohio College Republicans calling her a “domestic terrorist” put her in danger.

Ocasio-Cortez Says Conservatives Are Inciting Violence Against the Left
Progressive House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during an event. (Photographer: Dania Maxwell/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused conservative activists and a newspaper of inciting violence against a fellow progressive House member, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar.

Ocasio-Cortez said at a House Democratic retreat in Leesburg, Virginia, that the New York Post endangered Omar with a front page Thursday that criticized her comments about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Ocasio-Cortez Says Conservatives Are Inciting Violence Against the Left

The cover referred to Omar’s recent remarks to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in which she said that that organization was founded “because they recognized that some people did something” on Sept. 11. The cover featured a photo of the burning Twin Towers and the headline “Here’s your something.”

“We are getting to the point where this is incitement of violence against progressive women of color,” Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, told reporters. “If they can’t figure out how to get it back to policy, we need to call it out for what it is. This is not normal, this is not a normal level of political debate or rhetoric.”

On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that an email by Ohio College Republicans calling her a “domestic terrorist” put her in danger.

“Almost every time this uncalled for rhetoric gets blasted by conserv. grps, we get a spike in death threats to refer to Capitol Police. Multiple ppl have been arrested trying to harm me, Ilhan, & others. @GOP, what’s it going to take to stop?” she asked in the Twitter post.

Omar has been the subject of controversy over her remarks for months. The House voted to condemn hate speech after she made comments about the loyalty of Jews and the role of Jewish donors in politics that were widely viewed as anti-Semitic.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Wasson in Leesburg, Virginia at ewasson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, John Harney

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