White House Rips Cynthia Nixon for Calling ICE a ‘Terrorist Organization’

The White House issued a statement Monday railing against the “abolish ICE” rhetoric of Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, who is aiming to unseat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with a primary challenge from the Left.

Last week, Nixon joined the steadily growing number of progressive Democrats adopting the “abolish ICE” talking point, once the preserve of communists and far-left groups. Endorsing the policy, which would effectively end interior immigration enforcement in the United States, she went even further than fellow “Abolish ICEers” like Sens. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), tweeting Friday, “I can think of no better description than to call ICE a terrorist organization.”

She later began a petition to do away with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency in question.

“It’s deeply disturbing that Cynthia Nixon has no clue of what ICE does to protect Americans and New Yorkers every day from dangerous criminals, terrorists, child smugglers and human traffickers,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley shot back in a Monday statement, adding:

The 9/11 terrorists responsible for the slaughter of 3,000 innocent people were foreign nationals on visas who committed immigration fraud and who should have been deported. ICE was created in the aftermath of that tragedy to help ensure that no similar atrocity would ever strike our nation again. “It’s especially unfortunate that Nixon, as a New Yorker, not only advocates for the abolition of the very agency that would’ve helped stop 9/11, but also smears and slanders the tireless work carried out by the brave men and women of ICE to keep our country safe.

The New York Post quotes Nixon’s campaign as issuing a response directed straight to Gidley’s boss, President Donald Trump. “I do remember 9/11, Donald. When I and many other New Yorkers were running to pick up our kids and make sure our loved ones were safe, you called up FOX News and talked about how you now owned the tallest building in Manhattan,” the statement reads. “The lesson of 9/11 was not that we need to tear families apart. It was that our country is strongest when we stand together.”

Despite the growing Abolish ICE bandwagon on the “progressive” end of the Democratic Party, it remains deeply unpopular among Americans and even Democratic voters as a whole. It remains to be seen if the Abolish ICE plank will help carry Nixon over the finish line in the deep blue New York primary, but polling has consistently shown her well behind the incumbent Cuomo.