Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) accused Republicans of pursuing a “torture project” along the U.S.-Mexico border in a Capitol Hill hallway exchange with reporter Nicholas Ballasy on Thursday.
A partial transcript is as follows:
NICHOLAS BALLASY: You mind if I ask you about Liz Cheney, her most recent response to you saying that “this is not a model Congress,” that was her answer.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: I mean, I’m done with her.
BALLASY: What do you want to see done in terms of the border crisis? I’m hearing that some progressives are concerned.
REP. OCASIO-CORTEZ: I would like to see a clean humanitarian bill, where we fund [Health and Human Services] and [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] with no poison pills. Right now, what the administration is doing is that they are using the for-profit suffering of children as a bargaining chip so that they can continue to slip in more negative provisions that will ultimately cause more pain.
BALLASY: And how do you respond to Republicans who are talking about physical barriers being part of any package that deals with the actual crisis in terms of the traffic coming across the border?
REP. OCASIO-CORTEZ: If they want to do that, that’s fine. Have them negociate an appropriation. Have them make their case. But they should not be using a humanitarian crisis as a bargaining chip to make sure that they pursue their little torture project.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.