Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) accused House Republicans of only expressing opposition to sexual misconduct when it suits their political needs.
The representative tore into the GOP for failing to force the resignation of now-former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) until now-former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) was also forced to resign.
Related
Both former congressmen have been accused of sexual misconduct, but the accusations against Gonzalez have been circulating for months.
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She said, “This whole idea that we can find and determine expulsions and guilt based on political horse trading.”
“What happened today with Tony Gonzalez was disgusting,” she continued, “because those allegations and that case and that reporting have been out there for months. For months. You have to ask yourself what changed today that he gets to resign today, as opposed to last week, two weeks ago, three weeks ago. And the difference is that they were waiting on some political horse trade of a number. When someone is committing abuse, they should be out. It doesn’t matter whether a Democrat had resigned, a Republican resigned, or some horse trading. If you are guilty of this stuff, that’s it.”
She got emotional when discussing the fact that a married staff member with whom Gonzalez admitted to having an affair took her own life in September.
“It’s really dispiriting to a lot of these people that come forward… this is a young woman who died, and it’s sad, these people deserve justice. It’s really heartbreaking. I’m glad that we’re here… but it shouldn’t have taken this long.”
Ocasio-Cortez spoke on the matter to another reporter as well, this time directly addressing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). She praised Democrats for acting swiftly in holding Swalwell accountable and said Gonzalez’s resignation came “because the Speaker of the House feels like he can play politics with the vote numbers. I’m just calling it how I see it.”
She called the behavior “disgusting.”
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