Four women running for Congress as Republicans have taken on the moniker of “the conservative squad” to “combat socialism” ― and, apparently, to take down their namesake, the four progressive first-term women of color in the so-called “squad.”
The Republican candidates ― Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota, Jessica Taylor of Alabama, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Beth Van Duyne of Texas ― appeared Thursday morning on “Fox & Friends” to announce they’d form the conservative squad.
The segment opened with an ad by Taylor in which she said she was “tired of arrogant socialists like AOC who have never even run a lemonade stand telling us how we should live in Alabama,” she said, referring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the progressive “squad.”
“I look right now, and we really do have a Congress that is run by extremists,” Van Duyne said in the Fox News appearance. “And it’s dangerous for America because they are really not doing anything.”
The group’s website, which was plugged during the segment for those seeking “more information,” is a donation portal containing an embedded clip of the “Fox & Friends” appearance. It offers the option of donating to the group or making a donation to funds for Republican candidates running against each of the four Democratic squad members. A percentage of every donation to the “conservative squad” would also go toward unseating the four progressive Democrats.
The squad ― which also includes Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) ― has repeatedly been the target of hate over the color of their skin, and the women were infamously attacked by President Donald Trump when he told them to “go back” and “help fix the totally broken and crime infested” countries “from which they came.”
Omar acknowledged the group’s announcement by tweeting that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Tlaib retweeted Omar’s comment.
Justice Democrats, a group that helped the campaigns of Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar and Pressley, labeled the move “embarrassing.”
Others commented on the group’s lack of diversity.