Ocasio-Cortez fires back at Lindsey Graham: ‘Graham wants to bring back 1950s McCarthyism’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) fired back at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) Monday afternoon after he called her and three other freshman congresswomen targeted by President Trump “anti-Semitic” and “communists.”

“I see @LindseyGrahamSC’s biggest issue w/ Trump’s racism is that it doesn’t go far enough — Graham wants to bring back 1950s McCarthyism, too,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, accompanying the tweet with a clip of Graham’s earlier remarks on “Fox & Friends.”

“GOP is doing this because they have no plan for our future,” she added. “We’re the ones fighting for healthcare, edu, good jobs, & they got nothing.”

I see @LindseyGrahamSC’s biggest issue w/ Trump’s racism is that it doesn’t go far enough – Graham wants to bring back 1950s McCarthyism, too.

GOP is doing this because they have no plan for our future.

We’re the ones fighting for healthcare, edu, good jobs, & they got nothing. https://t.co/pfAEATWbJl

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 15, 2019

Graham made the remarks in defending a series of tweets from Trump aimed at Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), telling them to “go back” to “countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.” All of the freshmen congresswomen were born in the U.S. except Omar, who is a U.S. citizen.

Speaking on “Fox & Friends” Monday, Graham urged the president to “knock it down a notch” and focus on criticizing Democratic policies rather than personal attacks. But he also tore into the congresswomen as “socialist” and “anti-Semitic” and said they “hate our own country.”

Conservative “The View” co-host Meghan McCain also condemned the remarks by Trump and their defense by Graham, a close friend of her late father, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“Whatever is happening to Lindsey, this is not the person I used to know,” McCain said Monday morning.

GOP lawmakers’ responses to the tweets have varied, with a handful condemning the tweets but just two calling them “racist.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) called on Trump to delete the tweets, but still accused his targets of “anti-Semitic rhetoric and … negative comments about law enforcement.”

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) called the comments “wrong” and said the four representatives’ citizenship was “as valid as mine.”