June 18, 2019

Republicans Claim Outrage Over Ocasio-Cortez’s “Concentration Camps” Remarks

It’s becoming a familiar strategy for GOP politicians.

Tom Williams/ZUMA

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Republicans are claiming outrage after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) compared immigration detention centers along the southern border to concentration camps—remarks she first made during an Instagram Live session late Monday and has since defended.

“That is exactly what they are: They are concentration camps,” Ocasio-Cortez told her followers on Monday. “I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that ‘never again’ means something.”

“I don’t use those words lightly,” she continued. “I don’t use those words to just throw bombs. I use that word because that is what an administration that creates concentration camps is. A presidency that creates concentration camps is fascist, and it’s very difficult to say that because it is very difficult to accept the fact that that’s how bad things happen.”

As her comments emerged in the media, Republicans accused Ocasio-Cortez of debasing Holocaust victims and survivors. “You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a tweet Tuesday morning. 

Ocasio-Cortez quickly responded by asking Cheney how she would describe the use of “mass camps of people detained without a trial.” Cheney, in turn, recommended that Ocasio-Cortez read testimonies from Holocaust survivors, as well as Elie Wiesel’s seminal memoir, Night. “Here’s an Amazon link to make it easy for you to purchase,” the Wyoming congresswoman added.

Cheney’s response notably did not include an answer to Ocasio-Cortez’s initial question.

The back-and-forth on Tuesday echoed a similar fury professed by Republicans back in November, when Ocasio-Cortez cited past global refugee crises, including the Holocaust, to defend today’s migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border. “I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana.”

As Graham and others implied that she was ignorant on the subject, a strategy conservatives have frequently used to undermine the freshman congresswoman, the official Twitter account for the Auschwitz Memorial appeared to tweet a veiled line of support for Ocasio-Cortez.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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