MSNBC, Dem. Rep Both Blast AOC Over Offensive Concentration Camp Remarks
After Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared migrant holding centers on the southern U.S. border to Nazi-era concentration camps in an outlandish Instagram video rant Monday, the freshman lawmaker has faced a wave of criticism.
While she mostly had to worry about backlash from the opposite side of the political aisle at first, after her video and the outrage surrounding it went viral, it began to transcend politics due to the sheer disrespect she showed for those who have suffered and died in concentration camps.
Although she later tried to argue that she wasn’t making the comparison to Nazi-era death camps, the fact that she used the phrase “never again” in her rant proves otherwise, as that’s a known reference to the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, in a CNN interview with host Brooke Baldwin, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar — one of the first Democrats to express concern over her comments — told the host in measured terms that he didn’t agree with Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison.
“I live on the border, I’ve been to those detention centers, I’ve been to those shelters as you know. If they’re adults, they’re in detention centers, but if they’re children, they are put in shelters that are run by nonprofits,” Cuellar said.
“I would not use the terms that she used and imply anything else after that,” he concluded.
He’s right on the money.
The holding centers on the border provide food, comfort and humane conditions — a far cry from the backbreaking labor, starvation and torture that concentration camps were known for.
Another surprising person who hit Ocasio-Cortez with a heaping helping of disapproval was MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. It’s not exactly common that Ocasio-Cortez would take any heat from a network such as MSNBC, but Todd held nothing back as he taught the 29-year-old lawmaker a lesson in history.
“Ocasio-Cortez tried to make a distinction between concentration camps and Nazi death camps, where the industrialized mass slaughter of the Holocaust occurred. Fair enough. But congresswoman, tens of thousands were also brutalized, tortured, starved and ultimately died in ‘concentration camps,’ camps like Dachau,” Todd said.
“If you want to criticize the shameful treatment of people at our southern border, fine. You’ll have plenty of company. But be careful comparing them to Nazi concentration camps, because they’re not at all comparable, in the slightest,” Todd concluded.
Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra tweeted a video clip of Todd’s criticism of Ocasio-Cortez.
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd blasts Ocasio-Cortez for comparing immigrant detention facilities to concentration camps pic.twitter.com/Oo9X3eyO2t
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 20, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about her thoughts on what Ocasio-Cortez said, only to blow off the question by claiming she wasn’t “up to date” on the situation.
In typical Democratic fashion, she then went on to blame Republicans, according to the New York Post.
“I do have some comments to make to my caucus writ large about the political nature of how politically charged the atmosphere is so, understand that while the Republicans have no interest in holding the president accountable for his words, they will misrepresent anything that you say, just if you have one word in the sentence that they can exploit,” Pelosi said.
Now that some Democrats and their allies are feeling more comfortable with condemning Ocasio-Cortez for her remarks, it’ll open the door for more of them to do the same.
She needs to be held accountable for her words, because as a U.S. lawmaker, what she says carries quite a bit of weight in this country.
Can you imagine if the situation were reversed and a Republican lawmaker used such language? He or she would be marched off the proverbial political plank within hours.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
