Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) decried a GOP PAC ad that aired during the Democrat debate Thursday evening. She called the ad, which targeted her socialist ideas, “violent,” “false,” and a “love letter to the GOP’s white supremacist case.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) decried a GOP PAC ad that aired during the Democrat debate Thursday evening. She called the ad, which targeted her socialist ideas, “violent,” “false,” and a “love letter to the GOP’s white supremacist case.”.

1. She has been a vocal opponent of the DCCC’s policy to “blacklist” firms that work with candidates mounting primary challenges against Democratic incumbents.
2. An economic PAC that supports President Donald Trump claimed responsibility for a woman who told Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez people needed to start eating babies because of climate change.

The New Faces of the GOP ran a 30-second ad targeting Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist ideas. It featured an image of the freshman lawmaker, which was burned away to show depictions of skeletons from the Cambodian genocide. Elizabeth Heng, who launched an unsuccessful bid against incumbent Democrat Jim Costa in California’s 16th Congressional District in 2018, narrated the dangers of socialism as the harrowing images flashed on the screen.

“This is the face of socialism and ignorance,” Heng said. “Does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez know the horror of socialism?”

“My father was minutes from death in Cambodia before a forced marriage saved his life. That’s socialism. Forced obedience. Starvation. Mine is a face of freedom. My skin is not white. I’m not outrageous, racist or socialist. I’m a Republican,” she continued:

We have a choice: Will we let socialists like @AOC be the face of our future? Or will a new generation of conservatives step up & lead us? We're launching New Faces GOP to help identify & support the next generation of GOP leaders. Learn more: https://t.co/UrarCUSAIlpic.twitter.com/LgwTrS8En6

— New Faces GOP (@NewFacesGOP) September 13, 2019

However, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that the ad used her image due to racism, rather than the socialist ideology she routinely espouses.

“Republicans are running TV ads setting pictures of me on fire to convince people they aren’t racist,” she wrote.

“Life is weird!” she exclaimed, calling the ad “a love letter to the GOP’s white supremacist case”:

Republicans are running TV ads setting pictures of me on fire to convince people they aren’t racist.

Life is weird!

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 13, 2019

Know that this wasn’t an ad for young conservatives of color – that was the pretense.

What you just watched was a love letter to the GOP’s white supremacist case. https://t.co/zvp1EB02c5

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 13, 2019

Fellow “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also condemned the ad, calling it a “display of violence.”

“The mere act of burning her image is a display of violence,” she wrote in part. “Folks need to stick to facts & policy positions.”

“They need to stop fear mongering & more importantly demonizing members of Congress. FYI: No one puts her residents (and our planet) first, like @AOC,” she added:

Exactly my thoughts. The mere act of burning her image is a display of violence. Folks need to stick to facts & policy positions. They need to stop fear mongering & more importantly demonizing members of Congress. FYI: No one puts her residents (and our planet) first, like @AOChttps://t.co/K2Qz1N0PeN

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 13, 2019

Ocasio-Cortez retweeted Tlaib and accused ABC and Sinclair of “amplifying” displays of violence.

“GOP’s message: No policy, no facts, just displays of violence + corporations like @ABCNetwork & Sinclair who amplify them,” she wrote.

“They profit from burning my likeness on TV. But who pays for heightened security? Who answers the phones for the threats resulting from a violent, false ad?” she asked:

GOP’s message: No policy, no facts, just displays of violence + corporations like @ABCNetwork & Sinclair who amplify them.

They profit from burning my likeness on TV. But who pays for heightened security? Who answers the phones for the threats resulting from a violent, false ad? https://t.co/Gr1XhEbwDC

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 13, 2019

Heng responded to Ocasio-Cortez, questioning the freshman lawmaker’s accusations of racism and pointing out that she is “calling all Democrats out for supporting an evil ideology.”

“Not Republicans. Me. Are you really calling me a racist @aoc? I’m calling all Democrats out for supporting an evil ideology,” Heng said.

“Or are you just in Congress to hang out with celebrities and tweet out ridiculous ideas like the green new deal?” she asked:

Not Republicans. Me. Are you really calling me a racist @aoc? I’m calling all Democrats out for supporting an evil ideology. Or are you just in Congress to hang out with celebrities and tweet out ridiculous ideas like the green new deal? https://t.co/w985LYjIZd

— Elizabeth Heng (@ElizabethHeng) September 13, 2019

Heng added that Ocasio-Cortez’s response is emblematic of the Democrat Party.

Ocasio Cortez Pac

“They are more offended by truthful words than the acts of their political ideology that has killed millions of innocent victims. I don’t care about @AOC feelings – I care about stopping her lies about the lies of socialism,” she wrote:

.@aoc response is the Democratic party in a nutshell. They are more offended by truthful words than the acts of their political ideology that has killed millions of innocent victims. I don't care about @AOC feelings – I care about stopping her lies about the lies of socialism.

— Elizabeth Heng (@ElizabethHeng) September 13, 2019

Justice Democrats, a PAC that helped send Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress in 2018, launched another attack against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, one of the biggest and most important establishment fundraising operations for House Democrats.

In a fundraising email, Justice Democrats blasted the DCCC for accepting corporate PAC money, suggesting it had corrupted the committee and some members of the party on policy issues such as health care and the Green New Deal:

Across the country, Democratic candidates are finally starting to embrace the progressive goal of refusing all corporate PAC donations. Justice Democrats swore off corporate PACs from the very beginning, and we're glad many of our fellow Democrats are finally following suit.

But apparently, the DCCC didn't get the memo that voters aren't happy about selling out their interests to the health care, insurance, oil, gas, and coal lobbies.

In just the first quarter of 2019, the DCCC accepted over $440,000 from corporate lobbyists and bundlers — many who coincidentally have fought ferociously against Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal.

And then, purely by chance we're sure, DCCC chair Cheri Bustos went on the record saying that the 'price tag for Medicare for all is a little scary.' Meanwhile, former members of Congress turned pharma lobbyists have raised $10,000s on behalf of the DCCC.

The email comes roughly one week after Justice Democrats launched a website, DCCCBlacklist.com, in protest of a new policy by the DCCC of refusing to do business with vendors who work with any candidate running a primary challenge to an incumbent Democrat.

'The DCCC is using their financial leverage to intimidate and blacklist many hardworking people in our movement in a blatant attempt to protect a handful of out-of-touch incumbents,' the website says.

Riley Roberts Ocasio Cortez

'We're launching The Blacklist to fight back and provide potential primary challengers with a database of go-to vendors, organizations, and consultants who will continue to support efforts to usher in a new generation of leaders into the Democratic Party.'

The fundraising email is notable because it goes a step beyond the main grievances listed on the website and accuses the DCCC of being corrupted by campaign donations, and pandering 'to the interests of Medicare-for-all sabotaging, and climate denying corporations,' amounting to a 'betrayal of our Democratic and progressive values.'

All of which points to the continuing notion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.,) has remained unable to corral the progressive flank in the Democrat caucus, something she has struggled with since the new Congress was sworn in in January.

Pelosi appeared to take a small swipe at Ocasio-Cortez earlier in the week.

'While there are people who have a large number of Twitter followers, what's important is that we have large numbers of votes on the floor of the House,' Pelosi said to USA Today, appearing to make reference to the nearly four million followers of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.

While many political pundits have drawn analogies on the tension between the progressive flank and Pelosi to the tussles between the Republican 'Freedom Caucus' and former Speaker John Boehner, the Freedom Caucus never advocated for or tried to build an apparatus to circumvent traditional elements of the party machinery such as the National Republican Congressional Committee.

'It's similar to what we, as Republicans, dealt with when we were in the majority,' former Republican Rep. Ryan Costello told USA Today in the same article in which Pelosi mentioned Ocasio-Cotez's Twitter followers. 'You have an ascendant left that is very angry, very blunt, frankly a little irresponsible in the things they say. And the base soaks it up.'

Ocasio Cortez Pac Money

At the same time, Justice Democrats is working to aid a primary challenge against Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas. A separate fundraising appeal by Justice Democrats referred to Cuellar as 'the most conservative Democrat in Congress,' according to OpenSecrets.com.

Ocasio-cortez Pac Money Game

Justice Democrats is also associated with freshmen Democrat representatives Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), all of whom have had controversial starts to their congressional tenure.

Alexandria Ocasio-cortez Pac

Requests for comment to the DCCC, the office of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Cheri Bustos, and Justice Democrats were not returned.