Ted Cruz attacks AOC for calling out Kanye’s antisemitic tweet

‘So you’ll be voting to censure the Squad’

Ted Cruz criticised Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she joined a host of celebrities condemning Kanye West's antisemitic remarks.

Mr West was restricted from social media platforms Twitter and Instagram after he shared antisemitic posts on them over the weekend.

The rapper on Saturday tweeted that he would soon go to “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”, in an apparent reference to the US military readiness condition scale known as DEFCON.

Prior to the tweet, Mr West shared a post on Instagram that suggested that rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was being controlled by Jewish people.

He defended himself saying he “actually can’t be antisemitic because Black people are actually Jew also.”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter criticised the rapper's remarks, calling them "hateful and dangerous".

The New York congresswoman wrote: “There is absolutely no room in this country or world for antisemitism.”

"It is important to see how harmful + dangerous Kanye’s words are – not only to our Jewish brothers, sisters and siblings, but also to our collective society at large. We must reject this wherever we see it."

Responding to her criticism, Texas senator Mr Cruz, who frequently locks horns with Ms Ocasio-Cortez, wrote on Monday: "So you'll be voting to censure the Squad?”

The “Squad” in question is an informal group of young and progressive lawmakers of colour, with Ms Ocasio-Cortez at the helm. Apart from the New York congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman are members of the group.

Democratic lawmakers — Ms Omar and Ms Tlaib — have previously faced backlash for their pro-Palestine stance and alleged antisemitic comments.

Ms Omar apologised for her old tweet on Isreal after taking office in January 2019. Ms Ocasio-Cortez had defended her Democratic colleague saying she was “sick” and “tired” of the attacks waged against Ms Omar.

Later in 2021, a group of bipartisan Jewish lawmakers accused the Minnesota representative of equating the US and Isreal with Hammas and the Taliban.

She tweeted: "We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban."

She criticised her colleagues for releasing a statement instead of speaking to her directly, which she said included “Islamophobic tropes”, before offering a clarification, claiming her words were misrepresented.

Ms Tlaib, who became the first-ever Palestinian-American to be sworn in as a congresswoman, was accused of making anti-semitic remarks after she slammed progressives who “back Israel’s apartheid government”.