Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) defended himself on Tuesday after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) accused him of using the “tactics” of a sexual predator for demanding she apologize for accusing a senator of “trying to get me killed.”
Last week, Ocasio-Cortez accused Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of “trying to get me killed” for his vote against certifying the 2020 presidential election. Roy responded in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Friday calling for Ocasio-Cortez to apologize for her allegation.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to Roy’s letter, since supported by 13 other GOP lawmakers, in an Instagram Live video shot on Monday evening. During the roughly hour-long video, Ocasio-Cortez talked about her experience during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and said publicly for the first time that she is a survivor of sexual abuse.
She went on to compare Cruz, Roy, and other unnamed lawmakers to “abusers.” Roy responded to her comparison in a statement to The Daily Wire.
“I was saddened to learn about the trauma that my colleague, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, described in recent days regarding sexual assault. Nobody should go through that, and I hope that she has received justice and experiences peace in the matter,” Roy told The Daily Wire. “As to her claims about my position, I will not be swayed from my beliefs about right and wrong — regarding this or anything else. Her comparison of my defense of colleagues to her circumstances were again inappropriate, but I am not going to participate in discussing her personal experiences as a political matter.”
“It does not change the fact that her allegation against Sen. Cruz was completely unacceptable for a Member of Congress to make against another member for engaging in free speech and debate about what our Constitution says about electors. Nor does it change my position that she should apologize for and retract those remarks,” he continued. “Members of this body have a duty to work to mend the tattered fabric of our Republic, stop this heightened rhetoric, stop the social media sniping, and move forward to actually do the work the American people sent us here to do.”
Ocasio-Cortez said that Roy demanding an apology for Cruz for accusing him of attempted murder reminded her of her abuse and that she was not going to be “victimized” again.
“Or my favorite this past week, Ted Cruz and now Representatives Chip Roy, and oh, by the way, some of the other representatives who actually encourage people to threaten members of Congress or tweeted out the location of the speaker, are not telling me to apologize for saying and speaking truth to what happened,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “These are the tactics of abusers. Or rather, these are the tactics that abusers use.”
Thirteen other GOP House members joined Roy on Monday in calling for Ocasio-Cortez to apologize for her allegation against Cruz. GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado; Ted Budd and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina; Michael Burgess, Pat Fallon, Ronny Jackson, Pete Sessions, and Randy Weber of Texas; Jeff Duncan of South Carolina; Yvette Harrell of New Mexico, Jody Hice of Georgia; Doug Lamalfa of California; and Barry Moore of Alabama signed another letter to Pelosi calling on Ocasio-Cortez to apologize.