Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has received death threats in recent days and had a campaign office vandalized with a message criticizing her for supporting Israel’s war in Gaza, the campaign manager for the New York congresswoman said Monday.
The congresswoman’s staff is discussing the situation with security officials, campaign manager Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben said in a social media post outlining incidents that come as Ocasio-Cortez, long a focus of animosity from conservatives, faces criticism from progressives over a recent vote on Israel.
“Last night, our campaign office in the Bronx was vandalized and we are in the processing of cleaning it up,” Hidalgo-Wohlleben said on X. “In the past few days, we also have received multiple threats on the Congresswoman’s life and we are treating this seriously with our security partners to make sure she, our staff, and volunteers are safe.”
The New York Police Department said the vandalism is under investigation. No arrests have been made.
The Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Video captured by local news outlets in New York showed the message “AOC funds genocide in Gaza” written on a sign hanging in front of her campaign office in the Bronx, along with red paint splattered on the building’s face.
Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, including labelling it a “genocide.” But on Friday, she voted against an amendment to the defense spending bill offered by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green that would have stripped funding for Israel’s missile defense systems. Ocasio-Cortez ultimately voted against the defense spending bill.
Her vote on the amendment provoked pushback from progressives. In a statement following the vote, the Democratic Socialists of America condemned her opposition to the amendment, which they view as support for Israel’s “eliminationist campaign against the Palestinian people.”
“The fact that Representative Ocasio-Cortez acknowledges that Israel is carrying out this genocide makes her support for military aid all the more disappointing and incongruous,” the statement said.
Ocasio-Cortez defended her vote in a statement on social media, arguing that the amendment would have perpetuated the war in Gaza by cutting funding for Israel’s defense systems without forcing an end to the larger military campaign launched in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
“I have long stated that I do not believe that adding to the death count of innocent victims to this war is constructive to its end,” she wrote on X. “I remain focused on cutting the flow of US munitions that are being used to perpetuate the genocide in Gaza.”
