Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) says House Republicans are being steered by far-right QAnon conspiracy theorists and white supremacists, and that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has lost control over his own conference.
“In the House Republican caucus, Kevin McCarthy answers to these QAnon members of Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Not the other way around.”
Ocasio-Cortez said there was a profound difference between the party’s caucus last year and the one that exists today. The previous one was Trump followers. Some believed in the former president and his agenda while others kept quiet because they feared him.
But now there’s a new element.
“There are legitimate white supremacist sympathizers that sit at the heart, and at the core, of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez said McCarthy hasn’t acted to discipline them or strip them of committee assignments as happened with former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a noted white nationalist.
As a result, Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t impressed by reports that McCarthy planned to speak with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has embraced QAnon and liked social media posts calling for violence and death of Democratic politicians.
“What is he going to tell them? Keep it up?” she asked. “Because there are no consequences in the Republican caucus for violence. There’s no consequences for racism. No consequences for misogyny. No consequences for insurrection.”
She added:
“And no consequences means that they condone it. It means that that silence is acceptance, and they want it because they know that it is a core animating political energy for them ― and this is an extremely dangerous threshold that we have crossed.”
Now, she said, the party isn’t acting out of fealty to former President Donald Trump but fealty to white supremacist organizations.
“We really, really need to ask ourselves what they are evolving into because this is no longer about a party of limited government,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is about something much more nefarious.”
See more of her comments below:
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.