AOC Grilled on Whether 'Concentration Camps' Existed Under Obama, Clinton
Ocasio-Cortez pressed by Jake Tapper about detention facilities under Democrats - WATCH
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Twitter famous Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was grilled during a TV interview about the whether the "concentration camps" - she has accused President Donald Trump of running on American soil - existed under the Obama and Clinton administrations.
Ocasio-Cortez has taken credit for sparking change by recently likening US immigrant detention facilities to the camps used by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
During a Thursday interview on CNN, AOC was pressed by host Jake Tapper on whether that term applied to the same facilities when they existed under Democratic presidents.
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"...using that definition, there were also concentration camps under Obama, and under Bill Clinton," Tapper began.
"That's in the story that you retweeted.
"So, did you call them concentration camps at the time, when Obama was president?"
"Well, at the time, I was working in a restaurant, but I do — I absolutely was outspoken against Obama's immigration policies and the detention of families then," Ocasio-Cortez replied.
"I think it's a remarkably consistent position, and I'm not here to defend wrong actions just because they happened under a Democratic administration.
"I'm here to speak truth to power.
"If it's wrong, it's wrong, and I frankly don't care what president does it."
And here's the retweet Tapper appears to be referencing:
I wrote for @GQMagazine about current US border detention and how it echoes the first decades of concentration camp history. https://t.co/JWxJaVNmNG
— Andrea Pitzer (@andreapitzer) June 19, 2019
Tapper also quizzed Ocasio-Cortez what she would say to Holocaust survivors, or their descendants, who find her invocation of the term concentration camp in this context highly offensive.
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"I have many in my district, and our Jewish community has rallied around this issue," Ocasio-Cortez said.
"Because when we talk about concentration camps, if we do not also talk about Japanese internment, if we don't talk about the Boer War, if we don't talk about the many times this has happened in the history of humanity, then we also erase the suffering of those people."
CNN’s Jake Tapper to Ocasio-Cortez: “By opposing both bills aren’t you just ultimately depriving these kids of housing facilities that they need?”
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 27, 2019
AOC, who claims Trump is killing kids in “concentration camps,” says: “The reason I defected is because I needed to send a message” pic.twitter.com/SuXfssPGmZ
CNN’s Jake Tapper asks Ocasio-Cortez about her false claim that the Trump administration is using “concentration camps” on the southern border
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 27, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez claims her Jewish community has rallied by her false claim that Trump is using “concentration camps” pic.twitter.com/NEy53TNsQX
"I believe that we have also made sure that we explicitly use the term 'concentration camp'," she continued.
"And we have to learn from the slow process, the slow, dehumanizing process that leads to horrible things happening to people."
