Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez branded right-wing Fox News host Tucker Carlson a “terrorist” and said that he “plays a massive role in political violence” in the United States.
“Like, I can tell you 110 per cent, one of the largest sources of death threats that I get is Tucker Carlson,” the congresswoman from New York told The Breakfast Club radio show on Tuesday.
“There is a major media outlet out there, a major news channel, that is fueling political violence in this country and we are acting like it is normal. It is not normal.”
And she added: “Every time that dude (Carlson) puts his name in my mouth, the next day, this is what stochastic terrorism is.
“It is like this indirect, it is like when you use a very large platform to turn up the temperature and target an individual until something happens and then when something happens, because it is indirect you say ‘oh I had nothing to do with that.’”
“Tucker Carlson, God forbid anything happens, he plays a massive role in political violence, like it comes on his doorstep specifically.”
Stochastic terrorism is a phrase used by academics and law enforcement to describe how ideologically driven hate speech increases the likelihood that people will attack the targets of those claims.
Ms Ocasio-Cortz has been a regular target of criticism from Mr Carlson, who called the former bartender a “rich, entitled white lady” on his show, leading her to rebuke him.
Her comments come several weeks after the husband of Hosue Speaker Nancy Pelosi was violently assaulted in a hammer attack at the couple’s home in San Francisco.
Authorities say that David DePape, 42, was looking for the high-profile Democrat who is third in line for the presidency while shouting, “Where is Nancy?” at her husband.
Later on election day, Ms Ocasio-Cortez easily defeated her Republican challenger to represent a newly redrawn New York City district spanning the Bronx and Queens.
The progressive congresswoman was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, becoming the youngest person elected to Congress at the time. She cruised to victory in biennial House elections in 2020 and again in 2022, according to projections from the Associated Press.
This year, she faced GOP challenger Tina Forte, a prominent right-wing influencer who promoted QAnon slogans, shared bogus conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and live-streamed herself among the crowds outside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
