Earlier this month, a fascist mob attacked the Capitol building leaving five people dead. The group was incited by Donald Trump but also his enablers in Congress like Ted Cruz, who objected to the certification of Joe Biden’s win and whipped the rioters into a frenzy by making baseless claims of election fraud. That frenzy led to elected officials like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who were forced into hiding, to literally fear for their lives, with the representative from New York later saying, “I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.” So you’ll have to excuse AOC if she’s not entirely jazzed by Cruz’s offer to help her investigate the situation wherein small-time investors were shut out from trading shares of GameStop (among other companies), even in the spirit of bipartisanship. Just a weird rule she apparently has about working with people who nearly got her killed!
After Cruz tweeted “fully agree” to AOC’s comment that it was unacceptable for the Robinhood trading app to block retail investors from buying shares of GameStock—which surged recently, burning big-time short sellers—and that she supported a hearing before the Financial Services Committee, the congresswoman responded by basically telling the senator from Texas to f–k all the way off:
She added: “While you conveniently talk about ‘moving on,’ a second Capitol police officer lost their life yesterday in the still-raging aftermath of the attacks you had a role in. This isn’t a joke. We need accountability, and that includes a new Senator from Texas. You haven’t even apologized for the serious physical + mental harm you contributed to from Capitol Police & custodial workers to your own fellow members of Congress. In the meantime, you can get off my timeline & stop clout-chasing. Thanks. Happy to work with other GOP on this.”
Not surprisingly, Cruz shot back—though not on Twitter, he’d already slinked away in shame by then—by telling reporters that Democrats in general have a lot of “anger and rage,” which is “not healthy for our country” and “certainly not conducive of healing or unity.” Naturally he took no responsibility for his part in getting half a dozen people killed and an attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election, insisting only that AOC and company are being unreasonable and hysterical for reasons that he truly can’t understand. Really, some people!
That was obviously an additional load of bullshit for which AOC wasn’t going to stand for, responding: “Oh, there’s anger? Now why would there be anger that Cruz amplified known lies about our election that fueled an insurrection that cost ppl’s lives? What does he think the logical response to his lies should be? A hug? Maybe there’s anger bc his actions deserve accountability.”
In related GameStop congressional news, incoming Senate Banking chair Sherrod Brown said in a statement, “People on Wall Street only care about the rules when they’re the ones getting hurt. American workers have known for years the Wall Street system is broken—they’ve been paying the price. It’s time for the SEC and Congress to make the economy work for everyone, not just Wall Street.” On CNBC, Senator Elizabeth Warren said Wall Street has “turned into a casino so that market manipulators come in and they drive markets up or down and make a profit on it. The billionaires and some hedge funds are yelling because they’re not the ones, the only ones, who make money when the manipulation works.” On CNN, Jared Bernstein, a member of President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the matter, adding that it’s just one example of broader inequality in the economy. “For me, and for the president, where this goes is that we’re not going to measure our progress by the stock market. You’ve got a booming stock market and you’ve got rising poverty. That is at the core of the problem that we are trying to solve, not just in the near term but lastingly.”
Anyway, you can bet several shares of GameStop that Ted Cruz and other Republicans will use this incident to claim that they’ve tried their hardest to work with Democrats but apparently are the only ones who want to unite the country.
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