WASHINGTON _ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is welcome to come to Kentucky and tour a coal mine, but first she needs to apologize., says Rep. Andy Barr.
Barr, a Kentucky Republican, wants Ocasio-Cortez to offer a mea culpa to "our colleague and patriot to our country" Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, before she accepts Barr's invitation to tour a Kentucky coal mine.
In a letter Friday to the New York Democrat, Barr said her recent comments about Crenshaw "demonstrate a lack of civility that is becoming far too common in the U.S. House of Representatives."
Ocasio-Cortez is coming under fire from Republicans for asking via Twitter why Crenshaw, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, doesn't "do something" about domestic terrorists.
Her tweet came as she defended her fellow freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, whom Republican critics have accused of belittling the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Omar said that "some people did something" as she talked about the creation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was formed after the terrorist attacks.
Crenshaw tweeted that Omar's remarks were "unbelievable" and that she was the "first Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as 'some people who did something.'"
Ocasio-Cortez accused Crenshaw of twisting Omar's words.
"You refuse to co-sponsor the 9/11 Victim's Compensation Fund, yet have the audacity to drum resentment towards Ilhan w/completely out-of-context quotes," Ocasio-Cortez wrote to Crenshaw on Twitter. "In 2018, right-wing extremists were behind almost ALL US domestic terrorist killings. Why don't you go do something about that?"
Barr noted in his letter to Ocasio-Cortez that Crenshaw served three tours of duty in Afghanistan. Barr said that "not only has Congressman Crenshaw 'done something' to combat terrorism, he was wounded by an improvised explosive device while serving _ causing him to lose his right eye."
Barr last month invited Ocasio-Cortez to "go underground" into a Kentucky coal mine so that he can show the author of the sweeping Green New Deal the "real life implications" of the climate change legislation that Republicans say would put coal miners out of business.
But Barr in the Friday letter said Ocasio-Cortez's remarks about Crenshaw go too far.
"I have always though regardless of political party, beliefs or ideology, that we need to treat all of our colleagues with respect and dignity," Barr said, adding that an apology "would be a step toward restoring a culture of respect among members of the U.S. House of Representatives _ a culture I hold in high esteem."
The 29-year-old congresswoman stunned the political world when she defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary last year, becoming the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.
She has become the subject of endless Republican fascination _ and vitriol _ with a report issued Friday by the left-leaning Media Matters for America that found over the past six months, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network talked about the congresswoman every single day, mentioning her at least 3,181 times.
Barr appeared on the Fox Business Network on April 4, telling the host he'd show Ocasio-Cortez "the real world implications" of the Green New Deal he called "the centerpiece of the Democratic Party's march towards socialism and their wholesale rejection of individual freedom and free enterprise in America."
