Ocasio-Cortez slams Cruz for retweeting her: ‘Get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) early Thursday afternoon slammed GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) for retweeting her earlier post criticizing stock trading app Robinhood for blocking users from buying or trading certain stocks. 

The progressive congresswoman earlier on Thursday had called Robinhood’s decision “unacceptable,” adding, “We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.” 

Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, then added that she supported holding a hearing on the issue. 

Minutes later, Cruz retweeted Ocasio-Cortez’s post, writing, “Fully agree.”

Roughly an hour later, the congresswoman rejected the Republican senator’s display of support, writing, “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,” likely referring to a death threat she says she faced from a participant in the violent Capitol riot in opposition to Congress’s certification of President Biden’s electoral win. 

Cruz has been criticized for supporting challenges to a slate of Biden electors over unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud that would have altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. 

“Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed,” she continued. “In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”

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.

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. https://t.co/4mVREbaqqm

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

In follow-up tweets, Ocasio-Cortez went on to say, “While you conveniently talk about ‘moving on,’ a second Capitol police officer lost their life yesterday in the still-raging aftermath of the attacks you had a role in,” referring to a second officer who died by suicide after responding to the Jan. 6 riot. 

“You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress,” the New York representative continued. 

“In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing,” she tweeted, reiterating that she would be “Happy to work with other GOP” on a response to Robinhood’s decision. 

You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress.

In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks.

Happy to work with other GOP on this.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

The decision to restrict trading for certain stocks, including GameStop and AMC, comes after users on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets forum worked to drive up the prices of stocks that traditional hedge funds have shorted. 

Under the limits announced by Robinhood, users will be allowed to close out existing trades but won’t be able to acquire new shares of stocks in companies including GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry. 

The restrictions have received bipartisan criticism, and the trading app has already been hit with a class-action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York that claims the company “purposefully, willfully, and knowingly removing the stock ‘GME’ [GameStop] from its trading platform in the midst of an unprecedented stock rise thereby deprived retail investors of the ability to invest in the open-market and manipulating the open-market.”