Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) demanded an apology from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Thursday after she accused Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of “trying to get me killed.”
Roy sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) telling the speaker to sit down with Ocasio-Cortez and get her to publicly apologize for her remarks. If the New York Democrat decides to stand by her allegation, Roy said he would find “alternative means” to hold Ocasio-Cortez accountable.
“It has come to my attention that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent out a tweet a few hours ago in which she accused Senator Ted Cruz, in essence, of attempted murder,” Roy said in the letter. “As a member of this body who disagreed with ‘objections’ to the electors and who has expressed publicly my concerns about the events leading to January 6th, it is completely unacceptable behavior for a Member of Congress to make this kind of scurrilous charge against another member in the House or Senate for simply engaging in speech and debate regarding electors as they interpreted the Constitution. I ask you to call on her to immediately apologize and retract her comments.”
“If Representative Ocasio-Cortez does not apologize immediately, we will be forced to find alternative means to condemn this regrettable statement,” he continued. “It is my sincere hope that we all stop this heightened rhetoric and move forward to actually do the work the American people sent us here to do.”
On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez and Cruz shared an exchange on Twitter that began in agreement that the online stock-trading app Robinhood should be looked into for its decision to block users from buying certain stocks.
“We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. Cruz responded, “I agree.”
Ocasio-Cortez rejected Cruz’s support, however, accusing him of a “trying to get me killed” by objecting to the certification of the 2020 election. She claimed that she would be “happy to work with Republicans on this issue” but Cruz should “sit this one out” and “resign.”
“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out. Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted back. “In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”
“You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress,” she continued.
“In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks.”
Cruz later responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s allegation in a statement to The Daily Wire, saying her conduct is “not conducive to healing or unity.”
“There’s a lot of partisan anger and rage among Democrats, and it’s not healthy for our country and it’s certainly not conducive to healing or unity,” Cruz said. “But everyone has to decide how they want to interact with others.”