AOC calls for 'liberation' of Southern states, accuses all Republicans of supporting white supremacy

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), in a social media rant Tuesday, night stated that all Republicans support white supremacy, that Southern states are not "red" states, and that the only way the United States can "heal" is if the people in those states are "liberated" from "economic, social, and racial oppression."

Ocasio-Cortez made these inflammatory claims in an Instagram video in which she suggested Southern states were also "suppressed," asserting that the Democratic wins in the U.S. Senate runoff races in Georgia show how grassroots organization on the left can overcome alleged voter suppression tactics by Republicans. Republicans, she also said, bore responsibility for the violence in the Capitol on Jan. 6, criticizing members of the Trump administration like former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao for resigning from their positions without invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office.

"You don't get to allow for an attack that kills five people and then afterwards say, I wasn't a part of it. Yes you were," she said. "You were a part of it when you caged kids. You were a part of it when you repealed Title IX. You were a part of it when the president committed the first dozen number of crimes that he committed. You were a part of it when you excused the lawbreaking.

"Those five people's blood is on your hands, what are you going to do? And they think that resigning is going to clean that blood off their hands, it is always on them. They are forever stained with the deaths of five people, especially when they did not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove this president when they had the power to do so. Cowards," she continued.

"I don't want to hear or see the Republican Party talk about blue lives ever again. This was never about safety for them, it was always a slogan because if they actually cared about rule of law they would speak up when people break the law. They would speak up. They would enforce fairness and equity, but they don't give a damn about the law. They don't give a damn about order. They don't give a damn about safety.

"They give a damn about white supremacy, they care about preserving the social order and the mythology of whiteness," she accused. "They lust for power more than they care about democracy."

Occasio-Cortez's claims echo those made by Stacey Abrams and other activists on the left who charge that election security laws supported by Republicans, like voter ID, are intentionally designed to prevent minorities from voting. Abrams to this day claims that she did not lose her race for governor against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, but that the election was stolen by Republicans who engaged in voter suppression.

AOC cited the recent Senate wins by Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as proof that Southern states that traditionally vote Republican like Georgia are not red states, but that the vote there is suppressed.

"That's what we got to do. We got to organize. And I think what we saw in Georgia is a really good example with black women leading the way, with multiracial and multicultural organizations leading the way, um, they proved that southern states are not red states," she claimed. "They are suppressed states. Which means the only way that our country is going to heal is through the actual liberation of southern states, the actual liberation of the poor, the actual liberation of working people—from economic, social, and racial oppression. That's the only way. That's the only way."