After Fox News host Tucker Carlson called Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) a “rich entitled white lady” Friday, the Latinx lawmaker bashed him for what she called “targeted, libelous harassment.”
“I genuinely want to know why Tucker Carlson is allowed/paid to engage in clear, targeted, libelous harassment that endangers people &drives so many violent threats that ppl have to fundraise for their own safety,” she said in a tweet Saturday.
“Our only excuse is its Friday and we’ve got limited self-control with stuff like this,” said Carlson about why his show was opening with news of “AOC: The Fearless Rise and Powerful Resonance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” a new book about Ocasio-Cortez.
During the segment, Carlson slung barbs about how Ocasio-Cortez “never reads, because reading is racism,” that she has “done more personally to degrade American womanhood,” than anyone else, that she is “not empowered, she is neurotic and silly,” and more.
“As a woman of color, it is so hard to be taken seriously,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a clip played by Carlson in which she puts on eyeshadow. “People already try to diminish me, and diminish my voice as young and frivolous.”
Carlson laughed at it.
“There is no place on Earth, outside of American colleges and newsrooms,” where Ocasio-Cortez would be recognized as a woman of color, he said.
Both of Ocasio-Cortez’s parents have Puerto Rican ancestry and her mother was raised on the island. Many people hold different definitions of Puerto Rican, Hispanic, Latinx and white identities. However, Puerto Rican people can fall under Hispanic and Latinx identities covered by the term “people of color” or “poc” which, according to Merriam-Webster, covers those “whose skin pigmentation is other than and especially darker than what is considered characteristic of people typically defined as white.”
“She is a pampered obnoxious ski bunny in a matching ski suit,” said Carlson of Ocasio-Cortez. “They’re all the same, not matter what shade they are.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s mother was a domestic worker throughout the lawmaker’s childhood and her father ran a small business in The Bronx.
“Following the financial crisis of 2008, tragedy struck when her father passed away suddenly from cancer,” according to Ocasio-Cortez’s official website. “The medical bills and other growing expenses placed their home at risk of foreclosure. Alexandria pulled extra shifts to work as a waitress and bartender to support her family, deepening her commitment to issues impacting working-class people.”
Carlson’s comments fell outside “realm of political commentary,” according to Ocasio-Cortez. “He regularly targets people that do not have access to resources for protection.”
According to NPR, Carlson has repeatedly been accused of anti-immigrant and racist comments, causing his show to lose major advertisers.
However, when a woman claimed to be defamed by an accusation levied by the Fox host, an opinion from U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the “general tenor” of the show should then inform a viewer that Carlson is not “stating actual facts” about the topics he discusses.
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