Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Powerful Thread Explains Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calling The Migrant Detention Centers 'Concentration Camps' Is Actually Quite Accurate

Powerful Thread Explains Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calling The Migrant Detention Centers 'Concentration Camps' Is Actually Quite Accurate
Sergio Flores for The Washington Post via Getty Images, @cmclymer/Twitter

Freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sparked GOP backlash after stating that migrant detention centers were "exactly" like concentration camps.

On Monday night in an Instagram live feed, the 29-year-old Democratic congresswoman called out the detention centers housing immigrants for what they really are.

"The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are."

Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, the elder daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, bristled at AOC's controversial statement and accused her of using the Holocaust for political leverage.

The Republican lawmaker tweeted on Tuesday:

"Please @AOC do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this."

Ocasio-Cortez reminded Cheney that she needs to brush up on history and vowed to continue fighting against detention housing centers.

AOC later blasted Cheney outside Capitol Hill, accusing her of "co-opting the language" by using the term "extermination."

"She used the term 'extermination' which is co-opting the language, eh, of that. You know, that term implies that the people who died in the Holocaust, it, it doubles down on the rhetoric that justified it. So, I think it's, uh, I mean I think she's the one that needs to do her homework."

Charlotte Clymer–an Army veteran and writer who identifies as a transgender woman–began a Twitter thread siding with AOC while denouncing Cheney for her ignorance on facts pertaining to a reprehensible moment in history.

What follows is a substantiated list of eye-opening facts from someone who was a former employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum–the official memorial to the Holocaust that was dedicated on April 22, 1993, and is adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The qualifying expert points out an unsettling pattern indicating that history is on the brink of repeating itself.

Clymer saved Cheney the trouble of doing her "homework" and publicly schooled the Republican congresswoman on the detailed facts and statistics from the Holocaust.







Clymer reminded Cheney that Americans turned their backs on those fleeing from persecution before.








Clymer, who is currently the Press Secretary for Rapid Response at the Human Rights campaign, further supported AOC's comment about immigrant detention centers with the detailed thread.

She concluded the lesson asserting that the Democratic congresswoman was accurate.

But instead of launching into a diatribe against Cheney for undermining AOC's statement, Clymer encouraged the Wyoming Representative to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Twitter expressed gratitude for Clymer's history lesson and hoped Cheney will take note.



Even Google and the dictionary agree.


In a Fox News interview, Cheney responded to AOC's "homework" comment by calling her a "left-wing zealot" and the "intellectual leader" of congressional Democrats.

She accused AOC of being ignorant and that her comparison to concentrations camps was a "total disregard for the facts."

"We should never be in a situation where somebody is bringing up the Holocaust in this public discourse, particularly diminishing what happened, particularly demeaning the state of Israel, demeaning the memory of the people who were lost."

Art Del Cueto, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, also pushed back on AOC's claim.

He told host Bill Hemmer on Fox's "America's Newsroom":

"It's disgusting to compare concentration camps to what the men and women are doing here protecting our country."

AOC doubled down on the backlash by clarifying once and for all that:

"concentration camps are considered by experts as 'the mass detention of civilians without trial.' And that's exactly what this administration is doing."

Concentration camps did not begin or end in Germany or with the Nazis. Adolph Hitler referenced the United States government and Presidents like Andrew Jackson's handling of Native Americans as inspiration for his own version of reservations/concentration camps.

To learn more about the definition of concentration camps and their world history, the book One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps is available here.

"This is a wide-ranging (to put it mildly) look at the history of concentration camps. Pitzer opens with "Butcher" Wyler in Cuba and takes us to present day iterations (Guantanamo Bay). In between, she offers incredibly lucid looks at camps in Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, as expected, but also in China, Chile, Argentina, and The United States." ~ George Cotkin/Amazon

More from People/alexandria-ocasio-cortez

Donald Trump
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump Blasted For Announcing New Additions To The White House Lawn As Global Tensions Escalate

President Donald Trump was criticized after announcing that two new flagpoles would be added to the North and South Lawns of the White House—not the greatest look amid heightened global unease as tensions between Israel and Iran ramp up.

According to the Associated Press, Trump watched as a crane installed the newest flagpole on the South Lawn, remarking, “It’s such a beautiful pole.” He later returned to the site to salute as the American flag was raised for the first time.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Donald Trump from CNN supercut
CNN

Trump Mocked For 'Two Weeks' Iran Deadline With Supercut Of All His 'Two Weeks' Promises

President Donald Trump has a history of promising to resolve problems within "two weeks," and a new viral supercut mocks him for all the times he's said as much—including right now with tensions in the Middle East higher than ever.

Trump said Thursday he will decide within two weeks whether to involve U.S. forces directly in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, citing what he called a “substantial chance” for renewed nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

Keep ReadingShow less
red flag with pole on seashore
Seoyeon Choi on Unsplash

People Break Down The 'Silent Red Flags' Folks Tend To Ignore In Relationships

A red flag has come to mean any warning sign in life, in addition to the literal red flags that are placed on beaches or industrial sites to warn people of danger.

People will respond to situations by saying, "That’s a red flag." But before that language evolved, they'd just call them "warning signs."

Keep ReadingShow less
Ted Cruz; Tucker Carlson
The Tucker Carlson Show

Tucker Carlson And Ted Cruz Get Into Shouting Match Over Iran In Bonkers Interview Clip

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz—a harsh Donald Trump critic-turned-MAGA minion—sat down with fired Fox News personality Tucker Carlson for the conservative influencer's self-produced online content,The Tucker Carlson Show, for the Tucker Carlson Network.

On Tuesday, Carlson shared a 1.5-minute clip revealing that things got contentious when the pair touched on the Trump administration's escalating tensions with Iran.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Barack Obama
Suzanne Plunkett-Pool/Getty Images; Scott Olson/Getty Images

Resurfaced Trump Tweet Criticizing Obama Over Iran Comes Back To Bite Him

Amid tensions with Iran, President Donald Trump was criticized for hypocrisy after social media users resurfaced a 2013 tweet in which he accused former President Barack Obama of planning an attack on Iran because of his "inability to negotiate properly."

Trump has declined to clarify whether the U.S. is edging closer to launching strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, following a warning from Iran’s supreme leader against any attack and a rejection of Trump’s demand for surrender.

Keep ReadingShow less