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ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ NEWS, TWITTER UPDATES AND BREAKING STORIES Squad members Ayanna Pressley and Cori Bush urge Biden to commute the sentence of EVERY death row inmate as they rip Trump's. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is complaining about the need for new leadership in the Democratic Party and says the current aging House leaders aren’t preparing young people to succeed them. — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021 After the insurrection at the Capitol earlier this month, Cruz — and other congressional Republicans — has been widely criticized for his insistence on objecting to the results of the 2020 election, echoing former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that victory was stolen from him. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday that she was willing to work with Republicans to investigate the stock trading app Robinhood, but not Sen. Ted Cruz, who she accused of attempted murder.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) on Thursday demanded an apology from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for Twitter comments she made holding Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accountable for a history of dangerous rhetoric that had deadly consequences at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.
“It has come to my attention that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent out a tweet a few hours ago in which she accused Senator Ted Cruz, in essence, of attempted murder,” Roy, who previously served as Cruz’s chief of staff, wrote in a letter addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
“It is completely unacceptable behavior for a Member of Congress to make this kind of scurrilous charge against another member in the House or Senate for simply engaging in speech and debate regarding electors as they interpreted the Constitution. I ask you to call on her to immediately apologize and retract her comments,” Roy wrote.
Roy was among a minority of GOP House members who did not join an effort to object to President Biden’s electoral victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania earlier this month, but appears to have decided Ocasio-Cortez’s expression of fear is inappropriate.
The thinly-veiled comments appeared to defend Cruz as a warrior of freedom “simply engaging in speech,” when he acted as a ring leader in falsehood and advanced an effort to object to President Biden’s win on Jan. 6 that sparked a deadly insurrection.
While rejecting that his rhetoric played a role in provoking the riot, Cruz, who rode former President Trump’s coattails in a months-long effort to refuse his party’s defeat in the presidential election suggested in a Fox News interview earlier this week that it was “time to move on.”
Ocasio-Cortez, refusing to allow the Texas senator to brush his antidemocratic charade under the proverbial carpet, rebuked Cruz after chimed in support as she condemned the stock-trading app Robinhood for blocking the trade of GameStop stocks.
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response. “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.”
In the wake of the deadly riot on the U.S. Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez has been outspoken about her concerns during the riot that a number of GOP colleagues might jeopardize her safety and even “create opportunities” for her to be hurt.
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Roy concluded his letter both calling on Congress to “move forward,” while awkwardly refusing to do so himself — warning that if Ocasio-Cortez did not apologize for he would “be forced to find alternative means” to condemn her “regrettable statement.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday expressed solidarity with roughly 1,400 essential workers at the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market in the Bronx, several of whom were arrested earlier this week while striking for hazard pay and better healthcare benefits during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
'Essential workers should not have to go on strike for decent pay, and no worker should be threatened for exercising their constitutional rights,' said Sanders, a democratic socialist from Vermont.
Sanders added that he supports the union-led effort, which seeks to raise wages by $1 per hour and secure improved benefits for those who work at the largest produce market in the world and have sacrificed to continue providing most of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the New York City region.
Essential workers should not have to go on strike for decent pay, and no worker should be threatened for exercising their constitutional rights.
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I strongly support Hunts Point Market @Teamsters strikers in their struggle for justice. https://t.co/FhsgvxCGYO
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 20, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who represents a congressional district that includes parts of the Bronx as well as Queens, also endorsed the strike.
She shared information about how to contribute moral or financial support to Teamsters Joint Council 16, which represents 120,000 employees in 27 locals, including the striking workers who are members of Local 202.
See you there! #HuntsPointStrikehttps://t.co/f6LuseM6Ya
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 20, 2021
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On strike since Saturday, six workers on the union's peaceful picket line were arrested between Monday night and Tuesday morning for blocking traffic.
'If you live in New York and had produce during the pandemic, odds are that's because of these workers,' journalist Alex Press tweeted on Tuesday night. After having risked their health to feed millions of people throughout the pandemic, Press noted, 'they deserve the city's solidarity, and it's a disgrace that any of them were arrested.'
if you live in New York and had produce during the pandemic, odds are that’s because of these workers—the majority of NYC’s produce passes through Hunts Point. they deserve the city’s solidarity, and it’s a disgrace that any of them were arrested https://t.co/dKYVqDtWnY
— Alex Press (@alexnpress) January 19, 2021
Daniel Kane Jr., president of Teamsters Local 202, also condemned the arrests. 'It is outrageous that after being called essential heroes for months, several of our members were arrested while peacefully protesting for a raise today,' Kane said Tuesday in a statement.
'These are the essential workers who went to work every day through the worst of the pandemic to feed New York,' he continued. 'All they are asking for is a dollar-an-hour raise so they can feed their families, too. The fact that they were arrested on Martin Luther King Day reminds us what side of history we are on.'
'They can use riot cops to get trucks into the market, but the workers they need to unload the trucks are still on the picket line,' the union leader added. 'We will stay on strike until these employers pay their workers the essential wage they deserve.'
In a video recorded earlier this week by a local CBS News channel, Kane said that 'it's not good enough just to clap for them, and say they're essential. When they ask for a decent raise, a fair number, they should be told, 'Yes you can have that, and thank you.'
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