Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) shared her fears that Republicans could take over in a "very authoritarian manner" if they win the House in 2022.
Speaking on Zoom, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said she believed the House minority leader would remove Democrats from their committee assignments in response to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) being censured for sharing an anime video that showed him killing the progressive.
She said: "Republican leader McCarthy made very clear that he very much alluded to retaliation if Republicans take over the majority.
"And so that may mean, in order to exact revenge on, consequences for his white nationalist member, he may strip Democrats from their committees as well."
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez added: "And so, it's unfortunate but frankly Republicans have made very, very clear over several statements that if they win a House majority, they intend to take over the chamber in a very authoritarian manner."
The House voted to censure Rep. Gosar in a vote of 223 to 207, which was largely along party lines. Only Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) joined Democrats to vote in favor of the censure.
After the vote, House Minority Leader McCarthy hit out against progressive Democrats, stoking concern about possible moves to censure them after the midterm elections.
He also suggested Representatives Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) would be reinstated to the committee assignments they lost.
Rep. Greene was stripped of her committee assignments in February over social media posts she made before being elected, which included advocating violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, Rep. Gosar, who has associated himself with white nationalists such as Nick Fuentes, remains unrepentant and claimed the anime clip of him killing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez with two swords was "nothing hateful."
Following his censure, Rep. Gosar retweeted the same video clip he had deleted and which led him to be removed from his committee assignments.
Newsweek has contacted Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and House Minority Leader McCarthy for comment.
Several factors indicate the Republicans are on track to perform well in next year's midterm elections.
The party in the White House often loses seats in the elections and Democrats are impeded by President Joe Biden's poor approval ratings.
Republicans also received a major boost recently when they won Virginia's gubernatorial election, a race that was considered a bellwether for voter sentiment ahead of the midterms.
Serpentongue on November 22nd, 2021 at 15:30 UTC »
Sounds like she’s really saying the Dems need to get their shit together and make some big moves before they can’t.
tlsr on November 22nd, 2021 at 13:56 UTC »
This has been clearly visible to anyone who is not an elected Democrat for a while now.
Dems slept through the decades long takeover of statehouses across the country and now they're sleepwalking through the culmination of that plan: permanent takeover of the HOR and the electoral college.
angel_and_devil_va on November 22nd, 2021 at 13:23 UTC »
She's correct. In most midterms, the minority party gains seats. The Republicans have made universal boogymen that can be used in every district in the country, and have restricted voting in a number of states.
Democrats tend to get complacent after they've won an election, and they don't have the ability to make these separate elections a universal national issue, and they won't get remotely the turnout that voted in the General election.