Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) avoided saying whether or not protests calling President Joe Biden ‘genocide Joe’ went too far, instead saying that the fact the word was being used shows the “mass inhumanity that Gazans are facing.”
In an appearance on Meet the Press, Ocasio-Cortez was asked if Biden, who she had voiced full support for moments earlier, was guilty of facilitating genocide in Gaza, as many of her progressive allies believe.
WATCH: @kwelkernbc asks @RepAOC (D-N.Y.) if she agrees “the president has been supporting a genocide” in Gaza.
Ocasio-Cortez: “I think what we are seeing … is that young people are appalled at the violence and the indiscriminate loss of life.” pic.twitter.com/Uaiv6bcRUl
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 28, 2024
“Some of your colleagues — and we talked about what’s happened at the protests this week — have called the president ‘Genocide Joe,’ do you agree with that word ‘genocide,’ that the president’s been supporting a genocide, or does that go too far?’ host Kristen Welker asked Ocasio-Cortez.
“I think what we are seeing right now throughout the country is that young people are appalled at the violence and the indiscriminate loss of life,” she said. “We are not just seeing twenty-five thousand people that have died in Gaza. We are seeing the starvation of … millions of people, the displacement of over two million Gazans.”
She then directed attention to the case South Africa brought before the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide. When countered that the court hasn’t decided whether or not a genocide is taking place, Ocasio-Cortez said that it was telling that the word was even in play.
“The fact that they said there’s a responsibility to prevent [genocide], the fact that this word is even in play, the fact that this word is even in our discourse, I think demonstrates the mass inhumanity that Gazans are facing,” she said. “And so whether you are an individual that believes this is a genocide, which, by the way, in our polling, we are seeing large amounts of Americans concerned specifically with that word. So I don’t think that it is something to completely toss someone out of our public discourse for using.”
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The New York Democrat has been among a handful of progressive House Democrats to publicly condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza, drawing bipartisan criticism.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is perhaps the most outspoken in her criticism of Israel and Biden’s support. In November, she shared a video on X featuring title cards calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide and putting direct blame on the president. She threatened to withdraw support for Biden over his support of Israel and has followed through on her promise.