Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed fellow congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments blaming gender-affirming care for the school shooting in Nashville.
Metro Nashville Police officers shot and killed Audrey Haleafter he killed six people, including three nine-year-old children, at Covenant Presbyterian School. Hale reportedly identified as transgender and used he/him pronouns. Law enforcement officials initially described the suspect as a woman in the aftermath of the shooting.
The shooter reportedly previously attended the school and used two assault-style rifles and a handgun in the mid-morning attack. Police reportedly found a manifesto that could offer a motive for a crime.
“There’s right now a theory that we may be able to talk about later but it’s not confirmed, and so we’ll put that out as soon as we can,” Police Chief John Drake said.
Ms Greene almost immediately pointed to the shooter’s supposed gender identity in a series of tweets.
“How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking,” the Georgia Republican tweeted. “Everyone can stop blaming guns now.”
But Ms Ocasio-Cortez slammed the remarks after House votes on Monday evening.
“It's absolutely disgusting and she should be looking into a mirror as to why she's defending and posing with the same weapons that are being used to kill children, teachers & educators,” she told The Independent.
But Ms Greene defended her words in a heated exchange with The Independent and noted how Hale’s gender identity was all over the news.
“It's not about their identity,” she said. “What kind of hormones are they on? What kind of medications are they taking for mental illness? What is causing this aggression in this biological female who identifies as a male for them to go in and murder children?”
Ms Greene also referenced a recent interview with Hollywood actress Jane Fonda where the double Oscar-winner said in response to anti-abortion laws “Well, I’ve thought of murder.” Ms Fonda later said she was joking.
“But these are important things,” Ms Greene said and added that “it's important because what will testosterone do to a biological woman? She's taking tons of testosterone trying to make herself look like a man”.
On Wednesday, Ms Green used her official congressional account to tweet: “Since the school closures, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in trans identifying children, which is something that was not normal nor common many years before this, and I think that’s completely devastating.”
On Tuesday night, Ms Greeene posted to her personal account that “Christoper Wray and the FBI must investigate the Nashville trans shooter”.
