Ocasio-Cortez And Lindsey Graham Have Heated Exchange Over Holocaust Comparison
Ocasio-Cortez at a rally on October 1. Image by Getty Images
Sen. Lindsey Graham clapped back at New York Democratic Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday, after she compared members of the migrant caravan trying to enter the United States to Jews fleeing Germany during the Holocaust.
In a tweet Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez cited Nazi Germany, along with other refugee crises, as an example of how “asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime.”
The South Carolina senator called her out on what he sees as the irrelevant comparison, suggesting that she “take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC.”
I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC.
Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana. https://t.co/05vCexiClE
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 26, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez responded and stood by her comment, explaining that the “treasured museum” should serve as a lesson to not repeat those horrors in present day.
.@LindseyGrahamSC, the point of such a treasured museum is to bring its lessons to present day.
This administration has jailed children and violated human rights. Perhaps we should stop pretending that authoritarianism + violence is a historical event instead of a growing force. https://t.co/aGJMrPTqNT
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 27, 2018
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
Clarification, November 29, 12:56 p.m.: The third paragraph now includes the words “what he sees as” to make more clear that Senator Lindsey Graham sees the migrant-Holocaust refugee comparison as irrelevant, not the author of the piece.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
