Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Monday fired back at former Donald Trump aide Sebastian Gorka for calling her “an insult to intelligent and empathic humans everywhere.”
Gorka attacked Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, after she noted in a tweet on Sunday that migrants seeking refugee status don’t deserve to be treated like criminals at the U.S. border. She cited Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and families escaping Rwanda as examples of other groups who weren’t criminals for wanting asylum.
The comparison set off some critics, including Gorka, who called Ocasio-Cortez’s reference to genocides “disgraceful.”
But that only revved up Ocasio-Cortez. She said Gorka’s apparent support of white supremacists got him forced out of the Trump administration. “Pretty sure we’re on the right side of history if you’re my opposition,” she tweeted.
Gorka left the White House in August 2017 after questions over his ties to Nazi sympathizers and far-right Hungarian political groups. He also had described Islam as an inherently violent religion.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also took issue with Ocasio-Cortez’s border comment, and she clapped back sharply at him and other critics as well.