Unlike how vocal and theatrical she was during the Trump years on illegal immigration, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been mostly quiet about the crisis at the southern border.
Other than a mild Twitter rant she wrote a little over a month ago about how keeping kids in cages was “not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay – no matter the administration or party,” AOC has predictably given the Biden administration a pass, for the most part, as new reports are filed almost daily about the deteriorating conditions at the border as an increasing number of migrants attempt to cross it.
But on Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez decided to hold an Instagram live chat where she discussed the crisis a little more in-depth. As has happened often in the past during other chats with supporters, the weapons-grade stupidity was on full display, starting with what she said about people who use the term “surge” to describe what’s happening at the border:
“They wanna say, ‘But what about the surge?'” Ocasio-Cortez said on Tuesday night during an Instagram Live session. “Well, first of all, just gut check, stop. Anyone who’s using the term ‘surge’ around you consciously is trying to invoke a militaristic frame.”
Except that is not how “surge” is defined:
1 : to rise and fall actively : toss a ship surging in heavy seas. 2 : to rise and move in waves or billows : swell the sea was surging. 3 : to slip around a windlass, capstan, or bitts —used especially of a rope.
But that wasn’t the most absurd part of her rant. She then played the “white supremacy” card to make her case which, of course, made no sense, especially considering the fact that “surge” is not exclusively a “militaristic” term:
“And that’s a problem because this is not a surge, these are children and they are not insurgents and we are not being invaded, which by the way is a White supremacist idea-philosophy, the idea that if another is coming in the population that this is an invasion of who we are,” the congresswoman continued.
Watch:
AOC on Instagram Live talking about the border:
“Anyone who is using the term ‘surge’ around you consciously is trying to invoke a militaristic frame… This is not a surge. These are children and they are not insurgents.”
pic.twitter.com/vUjraUSNHr— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 31, 2021
Further complicating matters for AOC is the fact that the man she endorsed for president — Joe Biden — actually used that very term during a Democratic presidential primary debate in which he talked about his desire to see migrants “surge” the border. Watch as AOC’s and Biden’s comments are juxtaposed alongside each other below:
.@AOC says referring to border crisis as a “surge” at the border means you’re a white supremacist. pic.twitter.com/0hgIb4VWu7
— The First (@TheFirstonTV) March 31, 2021
Journalists on the ground at the border who are monitoring and reporting on developments took strong issue with AOC’s characterization, including Townhall.com’s Julio Rosas, who ripped her for not being able to be bothered enough to visit and see for herself:
I’ve been using the term “surge” because there’s a higher than usual amount of people illegally crossing into the U.S.
I’ve seen it with my own eyes on a nightly basis for the past week. https://t.co/3684dzzvSa
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 31, 2021
Yes, there are kids here, often by themselves. It’s emotionally taxing to see that night after night because God only knows what they’ve been through. Funny how AOC raced down to TX for the winter storm but she can’t be bothered to come down now to see what’s happening.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 31, 2021
That’s because, unlike the Texas winter storm or her prior visit to the border during the Trump administration, she can’t turn this trip into a photo op because it would be a supreme embarrassment for the Biden administration.
Let’s also recall when AOC didn’t give a rip about the incendiary choice of words she herself repeatedly used to describe the migrant facilities under Trump:
The woman who called border facilities “Concentration camps” is suddenly worried about the language and terminology being used. She’s a miracle.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 31, 2021
Ironically enough, the whole discussion about the border crisis started off when an Instagram user pointed out what many others have about her — that she had been mostly silent on the situation for the last couple of months. She did not like being called out on it, and proceeded to once again confirm she’s the raging hypocrite the right has been calling her for the last two years by rejecting the “border crisis” characterization. Instead, she called it an “imperialism crisis” and a “climate crisis”:
She initially appeared outraged when asked during an Instagram Live ask-me-anything session why she was “not addressing the border crisis and the kids in cages like you used to” — asking after a pause, “Are you for real?”
“It’s not a border crisis. It’s an Imperialism crisis, it’s a climate crisis, it’s a trade crisis. And also it’s a carceral crisis,” she said, without directly addressing the kids-in-cages allegation itself.
“But people don’t want to have that conversation. They want to say, ‘But what about the surge?’” AOC said.
Watch:
AOC on Instagram live:
“It’s not a border crisis. It’s an imperialism crisis, it’s a climate crisis, it’s a trade crisis.” pic.twitter.com/SmOCXaQQAZ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 31, 2021
Um, yeah, when migrant facilities are at 1600% capacity and there are coronavirus outbreaks at some of them, that’s a crisis, honey, and it doesn’t have jack to do with “imperialism.”
"It's an imperialism crisis!" she shouted at the access road. https://t.co/X5kXgl6e4m pic.twitter.com/yDPsSQap7D
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) March 31, 2021
If she wants to blame someone for this situation, she should look directly at herself and the man she urged voters to support in the general election last year, the man whose call for a “surge” at the border during his campaign and his axing of Trump’s policies on addressing such surges are directly responsible for this mess. There are migrants who have said as much.
Once again, the soaring rhetoric from Democrats about immigration is having disastrous real-world consequences, and unfortunately, we’re seeing them play out daily at these migrant facilities. Ocasio-Cortez can play word games and blame “imperialism” and “white supremacy” all she wants to, but all she has to do is look in the mirror and at the candidate she endorsed for president to see the real source of the problem.
Update/Related –>> AOC then versus now:
Yup…@AOC's grift is real. pic.twitter.com/2ErZB4mDS4
— RedState (@RedState) March 31, 2021
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