Usually, conservatives are the ones who criticize Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). But this week, progressives weren’t too happy with her either.
People from both sides of the aisle criticized the New York representative after she marked herself “present” during a vote to fund Israel’s Iron Dome Aerial Defense System on Thursday.
The “Iron Dome” stops missiles targeting Israel mid-air. It blocked 90 percent of rockets launched by Hamas in a breakout of violence between the two earlier this year, Business Insider reported.
Congress vote allocated $1 billion in funding to the missile defense system.
Conservatives criticized Ocasio-Cortez for allegedly crying after the vote. The New York Post reported that many Republicans were dismayed by the tears while others claimed they were fake.
On the other side, some progressive were upset with Ocasio-Cortez for siding with the more centrist part of the party.
Though she didn’t vote explicitly “yes” to the funding, she also didn’t directly oppose it. Eight democrats voted “no” to the funding bill, including Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow “Squad” members representatives Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Roll Call reported.
“It’s actually very gross that she has built her brand off standing with the Muslim members of ‘the squad’ only to leave them and everyone else hanging with her lil ‘present’ vote,” wrote Twitter user @yumcocnutmilk, who called on people to criticize the congresswoman for something more important than how she dressed.
“Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush voted no on funding Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. Voting present? AOC. She’s going to catch A LOT of deserved heat for this,” another user wrote.
Meanwhile, on TikTok, user @anjuull posted a video that got more than 16,000 likes that was captioned: “People defending AOC’s dress last week just for her to vote to fund a gen0c!de today.” The caption continued: “It’s almost like ALL politicians are inherently terrible.”
