Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) over the weekend accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of applying a stark double standard in her comments made after the killing of Alex Pretti by a federal agent during an anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis, the second such death in the city this month.
In one part of an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, which went viral with almost 3 million views on one X post alone, Ocasio-Cortez sharply criticized Noem’s suggestion that people should not attend protests with guns, arguing that the position conflicts with the Trump administration and conservatives’ fawning on former armed protesters on the political right.
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Pretti was a legal gun owner who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Minnesota law allows permit holders to carry firearms in public, including during protests. The government’s claim that he was armed and that he provoked the violence goes against videos and witness statements that circulate publicly.
Ocasio-Cortez said: “How rich is she to say that showing up at a protest site with a legally owned weapon should be grounds for the death of a person, execution at the hands of the state, by the same party and the same administration that praises Kyle Rittenhouse?”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) over the weekend accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of applying a strong double standard. via Associated Press
“When she [Noem] he is talking about how it simply shows and incites violence based on ideology against the government, when this administration forgave hundreds of January 6 rioters who then took to the streets and committed crimes of violence once again,” she continued.
The New York Democrat argued that the message being sent is only political: “What Secretary Noem is saying is not that you can’t do these things, it’s not that you can’t be armed, it’s not that you can’t attack your government. She just thinks you can’t do it based on your political affiliation.”
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The legislator also warned: “The chaos that this administration is trying to try against the American people is escalating, it is dangerous and it is a complete abdication of leadership.”
“We can’t go down this road,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “We cannot have country against country, citizen against citizen. This is not the America we believe in. It is not the America we are in and we must unite against this very dangerous type of division that seeks to incite against people and divide us.”
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