Ocasio-Cortez fundraises off criticism from Steve King

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is bringing attention to recent criticism from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) in a campaign email seeking donations. 

King tweeted at the New York Democrat last week to take up a Holocaust remembrance group’s offer to tour Auschwitz amid controversy over Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison of migrant detention centers at the southern border to concentration camps. 

The Democratic socialist was quick to point out King’s reported meeting with neo-Nazi groups during his trip to Holocaust sites, saying his party stripped him of committee assignments because he was “too racist even for them.”  

{mosads}”Before making any comment on anti-semitism and racism, Steve King should look in the mirror. Last year, King was stripped of all of his committee assignments after brazenly defending white nationalism — in reality, he should have resigned,” Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign said in an email. “No Republican — especially Steve King — can force this campaign to stop speaking truth to power. We’ve build a movement that will fight for justice in all of its forms.”

King’s office has not returned a request for comment from The Hill. 

The email directs voters to donate $3 ahead of a June 30 Federal Election Commission deadline. 

“That’s why we’re fighting for a positive vision of this nation — one where every community is welcome, where no one is demonized to fulfill a political agenda, and a nation where no children are kept in inhumane cages,” the campaign said in the email. 

Ocasio-Cortez faced some backlash last week, mainly from Republicans, for calling the detention centers concentration camps on Instagram Live. She has not backtracked from her comparison. 

Ocasio-Cortez will face reelection in 2020 after a surprise victory in a Democratic primary against powerful New York Democrat Rep. Joe Crowley. Her underdog campaign was largely backed by small, individual donors. 

She is running in a traditionally blue district.