Ocasio-Cortez defends being sworn in at hearing on conditions for migrants

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday responded to critics who questioned why she was sworn in to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

The freshman lawmaker, who sits on the Oversight panel, stood at the witness table Thursday and raised her hand to be sworn in for a hearing focused on conditions for migrants families at the United States’s southern border.

In response to a tweet from MSNBC host and liberal commentator Mika Brzezinski questioning why the lawmaker was sworn in — a step taken for witnesses but not usually for members of Congress — Ocasio-Cortez maintained she was asked to make the move.

“GOP has alleged that I am lying about the accounts of migrant women at the border, particularly about the fact that they were were told to drink out of a toilet bowl. Committee staff conferred with me ahead of time about formally requesting to be sworn in,” she wrote. 

Hey Mika – GOP has alleged that I am lying about the accounts of migrant women at the border, particularly about the fact that they were were told to drink out of a toilet bowl.

Committee staff conferred with me ahead of time about formally requesting to be sworn in. https://t.co/AppdBZJ4z6

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 12, 2019

What is this. Why? @AOC ? https://t.co/B0fBWEQChi

— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) July 12, 2019

Ocasio-Cortez similarly told a reporter for USA Today that the request came from committee staff.

{mosads}”It was committee staff that had approached me about the formal request so this is not something that even kind of started w/us,” she explained, according to a tweet from USA Today reporter Christal Hayes.

.@AOC to @sarahbishi: “It was committee staff that had approached me about the formal request so this is not something that even kind of started w/us. It’s because our account about the toilets &migrants drinking out of toilets was challenged &was directly challenged by the GOP” https://t.co/kolBIiUJQt

— Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) July 12, 2019

Others on social media questioned why the lawmaker was sworn in before her testimony, including a number of conservative writers and commentators who called the move unnecessary for a member of Congress.

A GOP committee source told me: “[AOC] chooses photo-ops over actually legislating. She asked to be sworn in prior to testifying…something that never happens for members of Congress. But that doesn’t matter to her. She just needed something to tweet.”https://t.co/fOmNX2pwRd https://t.co/2CtjBDPp0K

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 12, 2019

At a hearing today, @AOC asked to be unnecessarily sworn in just so she could get this picture right here. I think we should start calling her Congresswoman Instagram from now on. The only thing she’s ever worried about is the photo op. pic.twitter.com/wt75SlfJCq

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 12, 2019

This clip of AOC begging to be sworn in is so much better an an episode of Veep.

(I had to do it) pic.twitter.com/ovI2bgMibU

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) July 12, 2019

During the hearing, Ocasio-Cortez delivered an emotional testimony about her experience visiting migrant detention centers in Texas earlier this month, describing poor conditions and slamming the Trump administration for separating families at the southern border. 

“What’s worse, Mr. Chairman, was the fact that there were American flags hanging all over these facilities,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “That children were being separated from their parents in front of the American flag, that women were being called these names under an American flag, we cannot allow for this.”

A slate of lawmakers were on a panel before the committee Friday. Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) also testified.

Trump administration officials Jennifer Costello, the acting inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security; Ann Maxwell, assistant inspector general for evaluation and inspections at the Department of Health and Human Services; and Elora Mukherjee and Jennifer Nagda, lawyers who’ve visited the shelters, were also scheduled to testify in a second panel. 

Ocasio-Cortez first shared her claim about migrants being told to drink out of toilets after visiting a Customs and Border Protection facility earlier this month. CBP officials have disputed those allegations. 

Just left the 1st CBP facility.

I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me.

Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets.

This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019