Ocasio-Cortez Explodes Over Tom Cotton Op-Ed That Features Ideas Supported By Majority Of Americans
Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lashed out at The New York Times for allowing Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) to publish an op-ed in the newspaper that features ideas that are supported by the majority of Americans.
Cotton’s op-ed accurately describes the violent riots that have rocked Democrat-controlled inner cities across the country over the last week in response to the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody last week.
Cotton then describes how the violent riots are harming the most vulnerable communities and suggests that the solution to fixing the problem would by to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military to highly unstable areas that are not doing what it takes to fix the problem:
One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers. But local law enforcement in some cities desperately needs backup, while delusional politicians in other cities refuse to do what’s necessary to uphold the rule of law.
The pace of looting and disorder may fluctuate from night to night, but it’s past time to support local law enforcement with federal authority. Some governors have mobilized the National Guard, yet others refuse, and in some cases the rioters still outnumber the police and Guard combined. In these circumstances, the Insurrection Act authorizes the president to employ the military “or any other means” in “cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws.”
This venerable law, nearly as old as our republic itself, doesn’t amount to “martial law” or the end of democracy, as some excitable critics, ignorant of both the law and our history, have comically suggested. In fact, the federal government has a constitutional duty to the states to “protect each of them from domestic violence.” Throughout our history, presidents have exercised this authority on dozens of occasions to protect law-abiding citizens from disorder. Nor does it violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which constrains the military’s role in law enforcement but expressly excepts statutes such as the Insurrection Act.
Ocasio-Cortez, along with leftist reporters at The New York Times, called James Bennet, Editorial Page Editor at The New York Times and brother to Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet (CO), for publishing the op-ed and made numerous false suggestions in doing so.
Ocasio-Cortez posed the following questions for Bennet:
- Can you explain why you chose to publish misinformation in your pages in service of an “opinion” for state violence?
- Can you explain your choice to publish it on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square?
- Do you believe your Black colleagues saying your choices have put them at risk?
- Other Qs: Did you consider the author‘s explicit call for violence (“no quarter”) when you chose to run this piece?
- Is it your belief that you are not responsible for the factual integrity of what you publish?
- Do you believe calling for violence is an “opinion”?
Ocasio-Cortez was unable to list off any of the “misinformation” that she claimed was contained in the piece…………
Ocasio-Cortez falsely claimed that the op-ed, which was published on June 3, was published on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre, which took place on June 4th and 5th in 1989.
Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion that Cotton’s idea somehow puts blacks “at risk” suggests that only blacks are responsible for the violent riots and looting that is taking place.
Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that Cotton explicitly calls for violence is also false.
Cotton correctly noted in his op-ed that the majority of Americans, including nearly half of all Democrat voters, support deploying the military to stop the violent riots.