Ocasio-Cortez And Lindsey Graham Have Heated Exchange Over Holocaust Comparison

Ocasio-Cortez at a rally on October 1. Image by Getty Images

By Alyssa Fisher November 27, 2018

Sen. Lindsey Graham clapped back at New York Democratic Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday, after she compared members of the migrant caravan trying to enter the United States to Jews fleeing Germany during the Holocaust.

In a tweet Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez cited Nazi Germany, along with other refugee crises, as an example of how “asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime.”

The South Carolina senator called her out on what he sees as the irrelevant comparison, suggesting that she “take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC.”

I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC.

Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana. https://t.co/05vCexiClE

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 26, 2018

Ocasio-Cortez responded and stood by her comment, explaining that the “treasured museum” should serve as a lesson to not repeat those horrors in present day.

.@LindseyGrahamSC, the point of such a treasured museum is to bring its lessons to present day.

This administration has jailed children and violated human rights. Perhaps we should stop pretending that authoritarianism + violence is a historical event instead of a growing force. https://t.co/aGJMrPTqNT

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 27, 2018

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

Clarification, November 29, 12:56 p.m.: The third paragraph now includes the words “what he sees as” to make more clear that Senator Lindsey Graham sees the migrant-Holocaust refugee comparison as irrelevant, not the author of the piece.

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