Progressive “Squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was recently hit with a significant fact-check from NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo following her comments in the aftermath of the Israeli pager attack against Hezbollah. Calling out AOC’s critical remarks toward Israel, Cuomo declared that the liberal congresswoman was “dead wrong.”
Speaking about the attack carried out by Israeli counterintelligence officials, which saw thousands of pager devices detonate in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists believed to be supporting Hamas, AOC claimed the attack was a “war crime” that justified international prosecution. Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet, “This attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines US efforts to prevent wider conflict.”
Addressing AOC’s comments, Cuomo said, “She 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.” He added, “Then she decided to get truthy and show her claim that the exploding pagers were ‘clearly’ in violation of U.S. policy.”
Citing the tweet, the NewsNation anchor continued, “‘This attack clearly unequivocally violates international humanitarian law, undermines U.S. efforts to prevent a wider conflict.’ 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.”
Cuomo further pointed out that AOC failed to fully cite the Department of Defense’s guidelines, continuing, “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 stated. “The rules include a prohibition against indiscriminate use of mines, booby traps and other devices. Indiscriminate. What does that mean? It means that all feasible precautions shall be taken to prevent civilians from the effects of mines, booby traps, and other devices, taking into account all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations.”
The host further delved into the Department of Defense manual which discusses the specifics of what is permissible when combating enemies. Cuomo also pointed out that AOC does not have a sufficient legal background to interpret the nuances of international law.
“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. 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,” he said.
