A hostile crowd vented its displeasure with New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday during a Queens town hall.
Video of the chaos was posted to YouTube.
“American citizens before migrants,” one man yelled at her.
The man, who told security staff trying to remove him to “get your hands off of me; don’t touch me,” threw insults at the congresswoman and then, before he was hauled away, yelled: “Where are you on the migrant issue?”
Ocasio-Cortez said “OK” in a mocking tone as the man was led off.
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She tried to address the crowd on the issue of the debt ceiling.
“The president has come out saying that he also believes that he has this authority,” she said.
“What he has also said is that he is not sure if he is able to implement the authority in time for the June 5th deadline, and so that is where we see kind of this impasse.
“I still believe, first of all, that we should start to implement it anyway because we should eliminate the debt limit in the United States,” she said as the crowd interrupted with cheers and boos.
One man in the crowd heckled her about “$100 billion for Ukraine that you voted for.”
“I don’t like that Republicans passed a $1.7 trillion tax cut on the wealthiest people in this country,” she said.
Amid the yelling, one man who said he was a veteran tried to defend Ocasio-Cortez.
“We all came, for the most part, we came here through Ellis Island,” he said.
“Immigrants have nothing to do with vets, it’s just an excuse” – an Iraq vet addressed protesters who shouted about migrants, during AOC Townhall in Corona Queens. “We all, for the most part, came through Ellis Island” he spoke, “Legally!” shouted protesters in response. pic.twitter.com/rYfg4GtQYM
— Oliya Scootercaster ? (@ScooterCasterNY) May 26, 2023
One voice in the crowd called out, “Legally!”
Opposition to Ukraine was an oft-voiced theme.
“Stop funding this war; there’s a lot of communities that need help and need that money. I’m from that community,” one woman said.
Protesters came prepared with signs reading “AOC: An obvious criminal”; “Stop funding Ukraine”; “America First. Vetted legal migrants only”; and “AOC: Stop pushing drag queen story hour,” according to the New York Post.
Thank you to everyone who came to our Memorial Day weekend town hall! We had such a great crowd. ?
It was awesome answering all your questions, discussing the debt limit negotiations, and more.
See you next month! pic.twitter.com/XdAe13wzSQ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 26, 2023
Despite the flak she received, the social media posts from Ocasio-Cortez’s office offered only packaged happy talk.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
