Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shrugs off Trump’s ‘fuming’ tweet
You may have heard about U.S. Congress Representatives Ilhan Omar’s and Rashida Tlaib’s planned trip to Israel being denied by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump encouraging that he in fact deny the Congresswomen’s access to Israel. Omar and Tlaib are both Muslim.
Breathing new life into this controversy, Trump then involved U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into the fray when he tweeted:
“Like it or not, Tlaib and Omar are fast becoming the face of the Democrat Party. Cortez (AOC) is fuming, not happy about this!” Trump tweeted earlier on August 16.
In response, Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) shrugged off Trump’s fuming tweet, but did reply with only a laughing emoji.
Tlaib’s planned visit to Israel was allegedly more of a personal trip to see her grandmother and not primarily a political visit. As such, Netanyahu changed his stance on the status of that visit and did provide her access to visit his country, although Omar was still denied access. In a surprising reversal though, Tlaib changed her mind and said she wouldn’t go to Israel after all, stating that “visiting her grandmother under those conditions would go against her beliefs,” according to Fox News. Tlaib not going to Israel just provided more Tweet fodder for Trump.
“Israel was very respectful & nice to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, allowing her permission to visit her ‘grandmother,'” Trump wrote. “As soon as she was granted permission, she grandstanded & loudly proclaimed she would not visit Israel. Could this possibly have been a setup? Israel acted appropriately!”
Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Tlaib, along with Rep. Ayanna Pressley make up a group of progressive, freshmen congresswomen known collectively as “The Squad.” The four have carved an outsized presence on Capitol Hill since their inauguration in January, decrying Trump forcefully and publicly. ~ The Hill
Yesterday, U.S. Senator from Vermont and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, decried Netanyahu’s barring any U.S. Congressional Reps from visiting Israel, and was quoted by MSNBC and The Times of Israel as saying:
“And if Israel doesn’t want members of the United States Congress to visit their country to get a firsthand look at what’s going on — and I’ve been there many, many times — but if he doesn’t want members to visit, maybe he can respectfully decline the billions of dollars that we give to Israel.”
You can catch the complete interview with Sanders and MSNBC in the video clip below.
~ Written by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
