Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) reiterated Tuesday night a core tenet of the country amid criticism of a gesture made by billionaire Elon Musk during President Donald Trump’s inauguration celebrations: “We hate Nazis.”
Ocasio-Cortez spoke to her followers on Instagram on Tuesday, a day after Musk used an arm gesture, twice, that resembled the Roman salute adopted by the Nazis. Musk and his Republican allies have rejected that comparison and the billionaire discounted attempts to say “everyone is Hitler” as “sooo tired.”
The New York Democrat didn’t buy it.
“This is the United States of America. And I don’t care what Elon Musk is doing behind a presidential seal. In this country, we hate Nazis,” she said. “Kind of like a foundational, defining thing.”
“Two of probably the most foundational, defining things about American history is that we beat the Confederates and we beat the Nazis,” Ocasio-Cortez went on. “And I don’t know what side people may be on today, but I still am not rocking with anyone sympathetic to Nazis. And I will do that until I am six feet in the ground.”
Ocasio-Cortez also took aim Monday at the Anti-Defamation League, which tried to defend Musk as making an “awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm.” The group, focused on combating antisemitism, said the gesture wasn’t a “Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.”
“Just to be clear, you are defending a Heil Hitler salute that was performed and repeated for emphasis and clarity,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote Monday on X. “People can officially stop listening to you as any sort of reputable source of information now. You work for them. Thank you for making that crystal clear to all.”
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