Liz Cheney reignited her public clash with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ripping the liberal firebrand’s call for the abolition of the Department of Homeland Security.
“The level of just absolute irresponsibility now that we are seeing in the Democratic side among someone who clearly is one of the intellectual leaders now of the Democratic Party is really stunning,” Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, told reporters on Wednesday. “And we will continue to fight as Republicans to make sure we’re doing everything we can, everything necessary to uphold our constitutional obligations to defend this nation.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, told New Yorker Radio last week that Homeland Security ought to be nixed because the country needed “to undo a lot of the egregious … mistakes that the Bush administration did.” The freshman lawmaker added, “It’s a very qualified and supported position, at least in terms of evidence, and in terms of being able to make the argument that we never should of created DHS in the early 2000s.”
But Cheney, the House Republican Conference chairwoman, defended Homeland Security, which was formed in 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks when her father, Dick Cheney, was Bush’s vice president.
“We would just remind everyone the Department of Homeland Security is comprised of approximately 22 agencies. They undertake fundamental cyber intel operations for the nation, Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA is part of the department of Homeland Security. It is a crucial agency and a crucial set of operations that keep this nation, keep our citizens safe,” Cheney said.
The pair exchanged barbs last month after Ocasio-Cortez likened United States immigration detention facilities to World War II-era concentration camps.
“That’s a comment that is clearly ludicrous,” Cheney said at the time.
