NewsNation host Chris Cuomo called out Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York over statements she made on social media criticizing Israel’s use of exploding pagers to target Hezbollah terrorists.
Israel carried out operations Tuesday targeting high-ranking Hezbollah officials using pagers that were rigged with plastic explosives, following it up by detonating walkie-talkies used by the Iranian-backed radical Islamic terrorist group Wednesday. Cuomo, who feuded with Ocasio-Cortez on social media over her criticism of the Israeli operation, said she wrongly accused Israel of a “war crime” on air Friday evening. (RELATED: ‘It Makes Me Doubt My Party’: Former Clinton Pollster Calls Out Dems For Lacking ‘Backbone’ To Condemn DNC Protests)
“She [Ocasio-Cortez] started by accusing Israel of a war crime for what they did to members of Hezbollah in Beirut, and then, asking for an investigation, accused them of a war crime, asked for an investigation,” Cuomo said. “Then she decided to get truthy and show that her claim that the exploding pagers were ‘clearly’ in violation of U.S. policy.”
“‘This attack clearly unequivocally violates international humanitarian law, undermines U.S. efforts to prevent a wider conflict,’” Cuomo continued, quoting from the congresswoman’s post. “And then she said it violates U.S. policy. Clearly. Israel is not one of the United States, so they don’t follow our laws or rules. Second, if the representative was suggesting by that comparison that the United States should therefore not support Israel, good luck with that. And then, here’s what really bothers me about this salvo: She’s dead wrong. This is why you don’t accuse and then go in search of a crime.”
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Cuomo then noted Ocasio-Cortez quoted a Department of Defense manual on the law of war, but added additional information.
“Here’s the part that she left out, oddly, the next section after the one she cited, ‘The use of mines, booby traps, other devices is subject to the same rules and principles that govern the use of other weapons to conduct attacks,’” Cuomo read from the manual. “The rules include a prohibition against indiscriminate use of mines, booby traps and other devices. Indiscriminate. What does that mean? It means at all feasible precautions shall be taken to prevent civilians from the effects of mines, bobby traps and other devices, taking into account all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations.”
“The war manual even specifies an example of when booby traps are not prohibited. It would not be prohibited to improvise a booby trap, for example, to retard an enemy advance. What does that mean? Could mean a lot of things,” Cuomo said. “One of them certainly is a group of bloodthirsty terrorists coming from you. So, did she not read that part because she’s not a lawyer or not thorough or did intentionally not want to be fair? One is misfeasance, not doing your job well. The other is malfeasance, doing it badly on purpose.”
Cuomo also criticized the reported vandalism of Ocasio-Cortez’s office, but also said Ocasio-Cortez should have condemned threats against Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida or the assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump. (RELATED: ‘Take That Shot’: Dem C-SPAN Caller Praises Would-Be Trump Assassins)
“She had nothing to say about her colleague Anna Paulina Luna when that’s exactly what happened to her and she said nothing about the assassination attempts against former President Trump,” Cuomo said. “So what do we know? Clearly, she does not value her opponents as humans the way she does herself.”
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