Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized Democratic House leadership for not punishing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) over her repeated Islamophobic statements targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
“It’s embarrassing that there is any hesitation on this,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Friday. “How can we have different consequences for different kinds of bigotry or incitement?”
“Incite against a member and you’re stripped. End of story,” the congresswoman added, calling for the Republican to lose her committee assignments.
In November, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was censured in the House and stripped of his committee seats for posting a violent anime video doctored to depict him killing Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden.
Later that month, Boebert joked to a crowd about Omar being a suicide bomber, referring to the Muslim lawmaker as the “jihad squad.” And at another event in September, Boebert suggested Omar was a terrorist, saying: “She doesn’t have a backpack, she wasn’t dropping it and running, so we’re good.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has not publicly condemned Boebert for her Islamophobic remarks.
And though Democratic leadership released a statement calling Boebert’s anti-Muslim comments “deeply offensive and concerning,” they have not moved to call a censure vote against Boebert.
“It’s a pretty simple question: does the House accept violent Islamophobia or not?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Friday. “We should feel ashamed every time [Omar] or anyone is forced to defend themselves against threats in their workplace alone [because] the institutions they serve in won’t protect them. It’s messed up.”
On Monday, Omar hung up on Boebert during a call between the two women after Boebert refused to apologize for targeting Omar with her anti-Muslim remarks.
On Tuesday, Omar held a joint news conference with fellow Muslim lawmakers Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and André Carson (D-Ind.) to condemn Republicans’ inaction.
Omar — who has faced Islamophobic attacks from former President Donald Trump and Republican pundits and has gotten a multitude of death threats — played a voicemail at the news conference, which she received after the video of Boebert’s anti-Muslim remarks was posted online: “There is plenty that would love the opportunity to take you off the face of this fucking earth,” a male voice said, calling Omar a “Muslim piece of shit” and a “jihadist.”
On Thursday, more than three dozen progressive House Democrats called for Boebert to be stripped of her committee assignments.