AOC on DeSantis' Gaza refugee comments: 'Rhetoric like that' got a six-year-old stabbed
The Florida governor sparked controversy on Saturday when he said the refugees would be 'antisemitic.'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., suggested in a new interview that recent rhetoric from Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Gaza refugees led to the killing of a Palestinian-American boy.
DeSantis on Sunday stuck to his stance that the U.S. should not accept refugees from Gaza amid the ongoing Hamas war with Israel.
"Palestinian Arabs should go to Arab countries. The U.S. should not be absorbing any of those," DeSantis said during an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday.
A day earlier, the Republican presidential candidate said the U.S. should not accept people from Gaza as refugees, telling an Iowa crowd, "I am not going to do that."
FORMER 'MISS ISRAEL' CALLS OUT BLM FOR RESPONSE TO HAMAS TERROR ATTACKS: HOSTAGES 'CANNOT BREATHE'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) prepares to speak during a rally for immigration provisions to be included in the Build Back Better Act outside the U.S. Capitol December 7, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
"If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel's right to exist," he added.
During an appearance on "CNN NewsNight" with Abby Phillip, Ocasio-Cortez called DeSantis' rhetoric "incredibly destructive and dangerous."
"We just had a six-year-old boy stabbed 26 times this morning because of rhetoric like that," she said. "It is dangerous. It is unacceptable. It is reckless. And no leader in the United States of America should be amplifying a message like that."
DeSantis and Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to the story of Wadea Al Fayoume, a 6-year-old who was brutally stabbed to death on Saturday in Illinois. His mother, Hanaan Shahin, was also stabbed more than a dozen times but survived. The family's landlord, 71-year-old Joseph M. Czuba, has been charged with the boy's murder.
ISRAELI SURVIVORS OF HAMAS TERROR ATTACK RECOUNT HARROWING BRUTALITY, HEROISM
Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivers remarks at the 2023 Christians United for Israel summit on July 17, 2023, in Arlington, Virginia. ((Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))
Will County officials said the attack occurred because the family was Muslim. The Justice Department is now investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Ocasio-Cortez last week distanced herself from a pro-Palestinian rally promoted by the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The DSA blamed the attack on Israel, posting on social media: "Today's events are a direct result of Israel's apartheid regime – a regime that receives billions in funding from the United States."
REMEMBERING US VICTIMS KILLED AND MISSING IN THE ISRAELI-HAMAS WAR
Illinois State Representative Abdelnasser Rashid said in a Facebook post that he was devastated by the news of the murder of a 6-year-old boy who was stabbed 26 times in Plainfield, Illinois on Oct. 14, 2023. (Illinois State Representative Abdelnasser Rashid - Facebook)
Demonstrators at the rally also burned and stomped on an Israeli flag and taunted Israeli supporters with an image of a swastika.
Following the event, Ocasio-Cortez, a DSA member, told Politico that shutting down hatred and antisemitism is a "core tenet of solidarity."
"The bigotry and callousness expressed in Times Square on Sunday were unacceptable and harmful in this devastating moment. It also did not speak for the thousands of New Yorkers who are capable of rejecting both Hamas' horrifying attacks against innocent civilians as well as the grave injustices and violence Palestinians face under occupation," she added.
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Fox News' Kyle Morris and Michael Lee contributed to this report.
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