Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Saturday criticized the response to Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) profanity-laden pledge to impeach President Donald Trump, vowing to protect her fellow freshman congresswoman from what she claimed is “faux outrage” whipped up by Republicans.
“Republican hypocrisy at its finest: saying that Trump admitting to sexual assault on tape is just ‘locker room talk,’ but scandalizing themselves into faux-outrage when my sis says a curse word in a bar,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in reference to the Access Hollywood tape in which President Trump — at the time host of the reality television program The Apprentice — was recorded making lewd comments about women.
“GOP lost entitlement to policing women’s behavior a long time ago. Next,” the self-avowed Democratic-Socialist added.
In a subsequent tweet, Ocasio-Cortez told Tlaib that she has her back, adding that the Bronx and Detroit “ride together.”
While Tlaib’s “impeach the motherfucker” remark was met with criticism from Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Trump himself, Ocasio-Cortez ignored the fact that several top Democrats also expressed disapproval with it.
“I don’t like that language. I wouldn’t use that language,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said of the remarks in a town hall meeting televised by MSNBC. The California Democrat then went on to say that the remark is “not the position of the Democratic caucus” regarding impeachment. “I think it probably consolidates his [President Trump’s] base, but I don’t think it needs much consolidation,” she added.
On Friday evening, Tlaib said she stands by her remark, telling WDIV Local 4 in Detroit that President Trump “has met his match” and “he’s just going to have to deal” with it. “I’ve always been this way. No one expects me to be anything but myself. The girl from Southwest Detroit. The little sass and attitude,” the Michigan Democrat said. “I think President Trump has met his match. I don’t like bullies. I go after them the same way they go after us. And he’s just going to have to deal.”
“I stand by impeaching the president of the United States. I ran on that,” she added. “I very much hold dearly that I want to impeach this president.”