Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) unleashed a furious attack on MAGA lawmaker Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who she said "made a fool of himself on national television."
Donalds was asked on “Meet the Press Now" whether he thinks everyone — citizens and non-citizens — are entitled to due process.
“When it comes to due process, that is a privilege reserved for American citizens,” Donalds replied. "When people are in our country illegally, there is a semblance of due process, but not nearly at the level of a United States citizen, of an American. There are two different standards."
Donalds insisted that people who come to the country are guests. And that privilege "can be revoked," he said.
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However, Congress' website clarifies that the Fifth Amendment "provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
Ocasio-Cortez slammed her colleague over his remarks in a fundraising email Monday evening.
"Representative Byron Donalds made a fool of himself on national television, saying that constitutional rights are only for US citizens. That is incorrect," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez noted Constitutional rights are "about the soil" of the United States.
"This is the land of the free. It's not that there are some people that have rights and other people that don't have rights. We are a nation of due process. The government is required to conduct itself along the standards of due process," she noted. "It is the government that is required to uphold standards of respecting free speech. It is the government that is required to honor and respect the requirements around illegal search and seizure. Don't let them think that it's on you. It's on them."
Ocasio-Cortez accused Donalds of "going on television trying to rip the Constitution apart, trying to tell people that America is not America."
Watch the interview below or at this link.
