Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had some choice words for Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday: Resign.
The congresswoman told the Texas Republican that he should resign if he wanted “to help.” He had agreed with a tweet in which Ocasio-Cortez called for transparency into the trading app Robinhood, which had decided earlier in the day to stop investors from buying GameStop, AMC Entertainment and other stock shares.
Her skepticism of Robinhood garnered widespread support online, and Cruz quote-tweeted her message, simply saying: “Fully agree.”
To that, Ocasio-Cortez said she’s “happy to work w/almost any other GOP” member but not Cruz.
“You almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out,” she wrote. “In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”
In two follow-up tweets, Ocasio-Cortez continued criticizing Cruz, telling him, “This isn’t a joke.”
“We need accountability and that includes a new Senator from Texas,” she said, before slamming him for not apologizing for the “serious physical + mental harm” he “contributed to.”
She also told him to get off her timeline and “stop clout-chasing.”
Cruz fired back at Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets when talking to reporters on Thursday afternoon.
“You know, there’s a lot of partisan anger and rage on the Democratic side,” he said. “It’s not healthy for our country, it’s certainly not conducive of healing or unity, but everyone has to decide how they want to interact with others.”
Ocasio-Cortez posted two more statements to Twitter after a reporter tweeted Cruz’s comments.
In one, she sarcastically asked, “Why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost ppl’s lives?”
“What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug?” she wrote before insisting that “maybe there’s anger bc his actions deserve accountability.”
She also summarized the hypocrisy that she believes the GOP is expressing, noting that Republicans say there’s a need for “healing + unity” but that they “will not take any responsibility” for their own actions.
After the insurrection at the Capitol earlier this month, Cruz — and other congressional Republicans — has been widely criticized for his insistence on objecting to the results of the 2020 election, echoing former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that victory was stolen from him.
“What I was doing was the exact opposite of inciting violence,” Cruz said, according to Politico. “What I was doing is debating principle and law and the Constitution on the floor of the United States Senate. That is how we resolve issues in this country without resorting to violence.”
Senate Democrats have since filed an ethics complaint against Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
“By proceeding with their objections to the electors after the violent attack, Senators Cruz and Hawley lent legitimacy to the mob’s cause and made future violence more likely,” the complaint says.
The letter was spearheaded by Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and demands an investigation into the senators to “fully understand their role” in connection with the insurrection and whether or not they need to be disciplined.
As HuffPost reported earlier this month, the complaint asks the committee to examine six questions as part of its investigation including whether the senators or their staff were in contact or coordinated with the insurrectionists, and if they failed to warn senators of plans for violence.
In the wake of the attack on the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez has spoken openly and candidly about the “close encounter” that led her to fear that she was “going to die.” In an Instagram Live after the incident, she told viewers, “Wednesday was an extremely traumatizing event. And it was not an exaggeration to say that many members of the House were nearly assassinated.”
She went on to say that she did not feel safe around various members of Congress during the riot and feared that they would reveal her location. Specifically, she believed that “QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers” in Congress could “create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc.”
On Monday, a participant facing four charges related to the attack, who had tweeted that he wanted to “assassinate” Ocasio-Cortez, apologized to her, claiming he was “ashamed” of the threats and said that Trump’s rhetoric had him “believing the election was stolen.”