'There are rules against this': AOC backs Jasmine Crockett after Marjorie Taylor Greene insulted her physical appearance at House panel meet

WASHINGTON, DC: Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has strongly defended her colleague, Rep Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), following an insult from Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), who suggested Crockett was unable to read because of her long eyelashes during a House Oversight Committee hearing. 

In a recent interview on the podcast 'On with Kara Swisher', Ocasio-Cortez emphasized the importance of defending Crockett despite some public disapproval of the incident. “I completely understand folks looking at this and saying, ‘Oh, this is terrible. Look at how low we’ve sunk', et cetera,” she told host Kara Swisher. “And I want folks who say that to just hold a little space for what it means to be a woman of color in a body that is 70 percent male and overwhelmingly white.”

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The incident occurred on May 16 when Greene questioned if any Democrats on the panel were employing the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, who was overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan. Crockett, a first-term lawmaker, challenged Greene's question's relevance to the topic, prompting Greene to respond, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”

Crockett defended herself, asking if it was appropriate to comment on “somebody’s bleach blonde bad built butch body,” but it was Ocasio-Cortez who quickly came to her aid. Ocasio-Cortez called Greene’s comments “disgusting” and demanded they be struck from the record, also pressing Greene to apologize, which she refused to do.

“There are rules against what happened to Jasmine Crockett,” Ocasio-Cortez stated. “There are rules against this, and the rules exist for everybody, but you. They apply to everyone else’s protection but you.”

“And so women of color who are often I think looked at or deemed unprofessional, et cetera, in moments like these, it’s because you have to choose between accepting the indignity of your treatment because the institution will not protect you, or standing up for yourself and being smeared because standing up for yourself is then equated with the original offense."

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Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on the challenges faced by women of color in such environments, explaining that they often have to choose between accepting mistreatment or standing up for themselves and facing further criticism. She highlighted that Crockett, as the only Black woman on the committee, was specifically targeted by Greene, pointing out the racial undertones of the insult.

“It is not a coincidence that she was the one that was specifically picked out for that, and especially for her as a freshman,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Reflecting on her own experiences, she added, “What I saw happen to her, I came to a place where I ate it constantly in my freshman year. I was ridiculed, picked out by Democrats and Republicans. No one ever defended me.”

Ocasio-Cortez called for collective shame over the fact that such behavior was permitted to occur and emphasized the importance of standing up against it. “I want people to feel the shame that this was allowed to happen, that the offense was allowed to happen,” she asserted.

Acknowledging that the incident wasn't a "great moment," Ocasio-Cortez maintained that it was necessary. “I know that when I go home, a lot of what I hear is from Black women saying, ‘Thank you for standing up for us because no one else does, and it’s usually just us that have to stick up for each other,’” she said.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s selfishness and narcissism is part of what is screwing over the Republican party. And while it may be good for her, in a way, she is such an embodiment of their core values that they are trying to distract the public from,” the lawmaker added.