Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Friday that her offices are “flooded with bigoted calls” while weighing in on a back-and-forth between a pair of House colleagues.
Ocasio-Cortez discussed calls to her office while commenting on recent tweets between Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who have been trading barbs on Twitter this week over religious discrimination.
“Our offices are flooded with bigoted calls too – so much so that we have to put energy into searching for actual constituents,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “We forward all the threats to Capitol Police to build files. For all those who think your bigoted calls + digital threats are anonymous: Enjoy!”
Ocasio-Cortez weighed in a day after Zeldin, who is Jewish, took to Twitter to share an anti-Semitic voicemail message his office received from a man who said he wished “Hitler would have done his … job.”{mosads}
“This new [voicemail] just came into my office,” Zeldin tweeted Thursday.
“This is just another day in my world as an American Jew in Congress. Would love to know what part of this hate filled, anti-Semitic rant you disagree with?” he added, tagging Omar.
Omar, one of the first two Muslim women in Congress and the chamber’s first Somali-American, responded in a separate tweet, calling the voicemail her GOP colleague received “heinous and hateful” while adding that she has received similar messages.
“Maybe we could meet and share notes on how to fight religious discrimination of all kinds?” she wrote. “Maybe over Somali tea, in your old office which I happen to be in now.”
Zeldin accepted the invitation later Friday, writing: “Let’s do that! Are you saying you disagree w/everything said in that voice mail? I sure do.”
Omar has not yet issued a response to Zeldin’s latest tweet.
The back-and-forth is just one of the latest exchanges between the two lawmakers, who have been accusing each other of promoting religious discrimination.