White House silent on AOC’s claim Cruz ‘almost had me murdered’ amid push for country to unify
RNC chair slams AOC for ‘reckless’ accusation against Republicans
Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel tells ‘America Reports’ that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is reckless and divisive for asserting Republicans sympathize with white supremacists.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday were among the many voices condemning the move by the retail trading platform Robinhood to restrict customers from trading shares of GameStop — but the sophomore congresswoman said she had no interest in working with Cruz to hold Robinhood accountable because Cruz “almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago.”
Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was referencing Cruz’s challenge to Arizona’s Electoral College votes earlier this month as Congress met to certify President Biden’s election win. Cruz’s challenge has been linked by many to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob that was fueled by the former president’s false claims that he’d won the presidential election.
Nevertheless, many on the right were upset by the broadside against Cruz, R-Texas, which came as President Biden has called for lowering the temperature of political discourse in the U.S.
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said. “Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”
The Biden White House has not publicly commented on the tweet from Ocasio-Cortez. White House spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News on the tweet.
“You know, there’s a lot of partisan anger and rage on the Democratic side, right? And it’s not healthy,” Cruz said in response to the tweet. “For our country, it’s certainly not conducive of healing or unity. But everyone has to decide how they want to interact with others.”
“Oh, there’s anger? Now why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost ppl’s lives?” Ocasio-Cortez shot back on Twitter, after those comments from Cruz were reported. “What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug? Maybe there’s anger bc his actions deserve accountability.”
The exchange between the firebrand GOP senator and the firebrand Democrat congresswoman was tipped off by Robinhood’s decision to halt trading of GameStop shares on its platform Thursday.
A group of amateur day traders on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets had targeted GameStop and a handful of others for what’s called a short squeeze, meaning at-home traders buy many shares of a stock that Wall Street short-sellers are betting against. Short-sellers — who bet on stock’s decline by selling shares they don’t own — have lost billions this week.
These average investors on WallStreetBets were joyful not just about making the stock of the brick-and-mortar video game company increase — to their financial benefit — but also financially harming hedge funds, which were heavily shorting GameStop.
But that changed Thursday when, in light of market volatility, Robinhood and other brokers blocked trading in those securities outside of letting users close their positions. FOX Business’ Charlie Gasparino reported that on Robinhood specifically, it cut off trading to preserve liquidity because it couldn’t handle such massive amounts of trading while also maintaining capital requirements.
To help meet those requirements, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, Robinhood raised more than $1 billion from existing investors.
Nevertheless, those upset by the move lobbed accusations of crony capitalism, saying that Robinhood and others were aiming to protect major brokerages that were hurt by the short.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who has assumed a role as a type of ringleader among the retail traders who pumped up the GameStop stock and others, called the move “one of the most remarkable, illegal, shocking robberies in the history — in plain sight, in plain sight. No closed-door meetings, nothing behind. Just right in your face, putting a gun in your mouth, and saying give us all your money.”
FOX Business’ Charlie Gasparino, Megan Henney and Fox News’ Sam Dorman and Jason Donner contributed to this report.
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