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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday once again called on Sen. Ted Cruz to resign, while taking the Texan to task for his role in inciting the January 6 attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol that the congresswoman says nearly ended her life.
Her suggestion followed Democrats' call for a congressional investigation of Robinhood, the free securities trading app at the center of the GameStop controversy, and what Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called its 'decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.'
'Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren't trying to get me killed.'
—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
As Common Dreamsreported earlier Thursday, the retail video game store GameStop 'is now at the center of an explosive fiasco on Wall Street in which major investment firms and hedge funds got taken to the cleaners by users of an online message board, namely the Reddit sub-page r/WallStreetBets, who mobilized collectively to drive up the company's stock price at a moment when many large, institutional investors had placed large bets for it to go down.'
Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted that he agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's assessment, but she rejected the fleeting display of bipartisanship in light of the events of January 6.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S, on Monday, Aug. The Enduring Relevance of Robert E. Lee: The Ideological Warfare Underpinning the American Civil War Marshall DeRosa DeRosa uses the figure of Robert E. Lee to consider the role of political leadership under extremely difficult circumstances, examining Lee as statesman rather than just a military leader and finds that many of Lee’s assertions are still relevant today.
As Mother Jones' Inae Oh put it, 'After Ted Cruz attempted to get cute and show some rare agreement with the New York congresswoman by joining her criticism of the trading app Robinhood for blocking certain GameStop trades, Ocasio-Cortez promptly told Cruz to fuck off.'
Here's what it looked like:
I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out.
Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed.
In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign. https://t.co/4mVREbaqqm
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress.
In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks.
Happy to work with other GOP on this.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
That wasn't the end of it. After Cruz reportedly fumed about 'partisan rage and anger on the Democratic side,' Ocasio-Cortez shot back: 'Now why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost [people's] lives? What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug?'
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Twitter
“We need healing + unity, but I will not take any responsibility for my actions, nor will I acknowledge the contributions my lies made to the violence or the harm that it caused, nor do I believe anyone should be held accountable. But if you’re mad at that you’re divisive.” - GOP
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— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
Much proverbial popcorn was passed:
looking forward to Ted Cruz' op-ed about how AOC is censoring him by telling him to STFU https://t.co/ZFjlFIXApL
— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) January 28, 2021
It’s getting weirder and weirder.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) January 28, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez described the seriousness of the events of January 6 in a poignant Instagram Live video earlier this month in which she called the Capitol attack 'a pretty traumatizing event.'
Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers were inside the Capitol and in the process of certifying the Electoral College vote for President Joe Biden when a massive mob, inflamed by Trump's lies and conspiracy theories about a 'stolen election' also spread by Cruz and other Republicans, overran the complex.
Five people died in the ensuing mayhem as lawmakers—including numerous maskless coronavirus-spreading Republicans and at least one GOP member who has menaced Squad members before—scrambled for the security of a safe room.
'I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die,' Ocasio-Cortez said in the video. 'I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.'
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Ocasio-Cortez subsequently called on Cruz, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and other GOP inciters to resign.
'Sen. Cruz, you must accept responsibility for how your craven, self-serving actions contributed to the deaths of four people yesterday,' she tweeted on January 7, hours before United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died from injuries caused by the mob.
“Let's bring up a vote to expel Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley from the Senate.” -@AOCpic.twitter.com/rHvZgpGoHX
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) January 22, 2021
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Ocasio-Cortez has since repeated calls for Cruz, Hawley, and other insurrectionist Republicans to be expelled from Congress.