Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is calling for a stop to “heightened rhetoric” following an interaction between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday evening, Roy demanded Ocasio-Cortez apologize to Cruz for suggesting he almost had her murdered.
“It has come to my attention that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent out a tweet a few hours ago in which she accused Senator Ted Cruz, in essence, of attempted murder,” Roy wrote.
He continued,
“As a member of this body who disagreed with ‘objections’ to the electors and who has expressed publicly my concerns about the events leading to January 6th, it is completely unacceptable behavior for a Member of Congress to make this kind of scurrilous charge against another member in the House or Senate for simply engaging in speech and debate regarding electors as they interpreted the Constitution. I ask you to call on her to immediately apologize and retract her comments.”
“If Representative Ocasio-Cortez does not apologize immediately, we will be forced to find alternative means to condemn this regrettable statement,” Roy wrote.
“It is my sincere hope that we all stop this heightened rhetoric and move forward to actually do the work the American people sent us here to do.”
Cruz said he fully agreed with Ocasio-Cortez after she called it “unacceptable” for stock trading company Robinhood’s “decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.”
She expressed support for “a hearing if necessary.”
However, Ocasio-Cortez did not seem open to Cruz’s support, as she hit back, “I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out. Happy to work almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed.”
She added, “In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”
In response to the Democratic lawmaker, Cruz told reporters, “You know, there’s a lot of partisan anger and rage on the Democratic side. It’s, it’s not healthy for our country, it’s certainly not conducive of healing or unity, but everyone has to decide how they want to interact with others.”
Ocasio-Cortez did not hold back in responding to Cruz’s remarks.
“Oh, there’s anger? Now why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost lives? What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug? Maybe there’s anger his actions deserve accountability,” she tweeted.