GOP senator on Ocasio-Cortez: 'Sure seemed like she's violating the law'
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said Monday that it “sure seemed” as though Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) violated the law when she hosted a webinar to inform immigrants of their rights in potential confrontations with deportation agents.
“We're supposed to uphold the Constitution, not tell people how, you know, to evade the Constitution,” Scott said about the congresswoman, in an interview on “The Benny Show” podcast.
The senator added that he didn’t think it was “part of my job description to tell people that 'Here's how you don't comply with the law.'”
“So, I think, it sure seemed like she's violating the law,” Scott said.
Scott said President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, should prosecute Ocasio-Cortez “if she’s done something wrong.”
“Look, we need to have equal protection and equal enforcement of the law,” Scott said. “And if she's done something wrong, I hope Tom Homan does his job and, you know, prosecutes her to the full extent of the law.”
In a series of news interviews last month, Homan suggested Ocasio-Cortez had violated federal laws by hosting the Feb. 12 “Know Your Rights” seminar, which she’s characterized as offering “practical guidance on how to interact with” deportation officials.
A day after the event, he said Ocasio-Cortez might be “impeding” the government’s efforts to enforce immigration laws and said, “Maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now,” using the congresswoman’s initials. Homan also said he’d sent an email to the deputy attorney general asking him to examine the episode.
Ocasio-Cortez has fiercely defended her actions, saying they were well within her First Amendment rights to free speech — a point she emphasized in a highly unusual letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi last week asking if she was in legal hot water.
In the letter, the congresswoman defended her actions but said she was seeking “clarity on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has yielded to political pressure and attempts to weaponize the agency against elected officials whose speech they disagree with.”
“It has been 14 days since Mr. Homan first threatened to weaponize your agency, but I have not yet heard any referral from the federal government,” she wrote. “Homan’s actions undercut core Constitutional rights and further transparency is necessary.”
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