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.
âAmerican citizens before migrants,â one man yelled at her.
The man, who told security staff trying to remove him to âget your hands off of me; donât touch me,â threw insults at the congresswoman and then, before he was hauled away, yelled: âWhere are you on the migrant issue?â
Ocasio-Cortez said âOKâ in a mocking tone as the man was led off.
She tried to address the crowd on the issue of the debt ceiling.
âThe president has come out saying that he also believes that he has this authority,â she said.
âWhat 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.
âI still believe, first of all, that we should start to implement it anyway because we should eliminate the debt limit in the United States,â she said as the crowd interrupted with cheers and boos.
One man in the crowd heckled her about â$100 billion for Ukraine that you voted for.â
âI donât like that Republicans passed a $1.7 trillion tax cut on the wealthiest people in this country,â she said.
Amid the yelling, one man who said he was a veteran tried to defend Ocasio-Cortez.
âWe all came, for the most part, we came here through Ellis Island,â he said.
One voice in the crowd called out, âLegally!â
Opposition to Ukraine was an oft-voiced theme.
âStop funding this war; thereâs a lot of communities that need help and need that money. Iâm from that community,â one woman said.
Protesters came prepared with signs reading âAOC: An obvious criminalâ; âStop funding Ukraineâ; âAmerica First. Vetted legal migrants onlyâ; and âAOC: Stop pushing drag queen story hour,â according to the New York Post.
Despite the flak she received, the social media posts from Ocasio-Cortezâs office offered only packaged happy talk.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.