A freshman member of the House of Representatives weighed in on this week’s “concentration camp” kerfuffle, accusing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and the GOP of “bullying” women of color.
“The continued policing and bullying by Liz and her crew of the WOC members of Congress is just proof that the GOP don’t have a policy agenda for the American people. Instead they want to focus on a hate agenda that doesn’t better our lives, but divides us more,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused President Donald J. Trump’s administration of running “concentration camps” of migrants at the southern border, sparking major backlash. Ocasio-Cortez’s critics accused her of downplaying the Holocaust, as the term “concentration camp” carries a connotation of Adolf Hitler’s WWII death camps.
“Please [AOC] do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this,” Cheney said.
Since then, a raging debate has ensued between lawmakers – whose salaries we pay with our tax dollars – on Twitter over the meaning of the term “concentration camp.”
“Also [Liz Cheney] the fact that you employed the horrifying word ‘exterminated’ here (co-opting the language of the oppressor) tells us that it’s *you* that needs to brush up on your reading. Hope you enjoy defending concentration camps. I won’t back down fighting against them,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Tuesday.
The back-and-forth which has persisted for days culminated in Tlaib’s Thursday Tweet, which, in essence, accuses Republicans of being racists for arguing with Ocasio-Cortez.
There was only one way this rousing debate could end, and that was it.
Follow Peter D’Abrosca on Twitter: @pdabrosca
Like Peter D’Abrosca on Facebook: facebook.com/peterdabrosca
Preorder Peter D’Abrosca’s Book: “Enemies: The Press vs. The American People”