AOC Refuses To Accept Florida Congressman's Apology For Profane Comments
UPDATE:
On Thursday, July 23, New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressed the incident which took place between her and Florida Republican Congressman Ted Yoho earlier in the week when he verbally assaulted her with foul language on the steps to the Capital building. Rep. Yoho later apoligized for what he called the "abrupt manner" of their conversation where he was over heard calling her stance on crime and policing "disgusting" amongst other things.
In a statement made on the House floor in front of her colleagues, Ocasio-Cortez said: "Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters. I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho's youngest daughter. I am someone's daughter, too. My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter."
See her full statement below:
Tuesday, July 21, 2020: Democratic Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is used to being called out for her rhetoric and progressive stance by Republicans, especially on social media, but she likely wasn't expecting the verbal abuse she received from her conservative colleague on the steps of the United States Capitol on Monday (July 20).
According to The Hill, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) called AOC out her name using profane language as they passed each other after a heated exchange about crime rates in NYC.
Yoho was reportedly coming down the steps on the east side of the Capitol on Monday, having just voted, when he approached Ocasio-Cortez, who was heading into the building to cast a vote of her own.
In the tense exchange, which was overheard by a reporter, Yoho allegedly told Ocasio-Cortez she was "disgusting" for suggesting that poverty and unemployment are the driving forces behind the recent spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.
"You are out of your freaking mind," Yoho told her.
Ocasio-Cortez then replied to Yoho saying that he was being "rude."
As Ocasio-Cortez headed in the opposite direction, Yoho repordely whispered, "f***king b***h."
"That kind of confrontation hasn't ever happened to me — ever," Ocasio-Cortez later said. "I've never had that kind of abrupt, disgusting kind of disrespect levied at me."
She then tweeted at the Republican congressman, in her characteristically unbothered style:. "I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday," she wrote. "Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door. But hey, 'b***hes' get stuff done.
Ocasio-Cortez, who represents areas in the Bronx and Queens, has been under fire from a number of conservatives for supporting the plan to cut funding from the NYPD and then redistributing that money to social services. AOC stands firm in her assertation that the spike in crime is a direct result of unemployment and economic hardship cased by COVID-19 and not the reallocation of money to the police.
“Crime is a problem of a diseased society, which neglects its marginalized people," she said during the July 9 event. "Policing is not the solution to crime.”
