Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democratic Congressman, criticized AOC’s statement that any Democrat who supports life should be rejected by the party. Cuellar also criticized the Biden administration’s inaction regarding the southern border.
Cuellar, the Democratic congressman for life, responded to AOC’s comment about the Democratic Party needing to “reassess if… it’s appropriate…” for pro-life members of the Democratic Party to continue serving their constituents in the capacity of Democrats.
“I am a pro-life Democrat…”
Cuellar, a pragmatic, centrist Democrat, won by 289 votes. Cisneros was a progressive supported by the AOC.
Cuellar to Democrats: “Let me be me” https://t.co/flbXNKa98f
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) July 1, 2022
He said that AOC’s comments were “laughable”, and that AOC should review the definition of progressive as “the squad might not have forgotten what progressivism means.”
“I’d ask her to look up progressives on the dictionary. A progressive is someone who is open-minded to new ideas. Some progressives are not open to new ideas. They only accept their own ideas. A colleague suggested that there should be a standard. If I don’t, you’re pro enemy. This is what makes it hard to work in Congress. We tend to create artificial standards.”
A Texas congressman said that the AOC shouldn’t decide who should become a Democrat. Let the voters in their respective districts decide
He said, “Who is she to determine what the standard for being a true Democrat?” If we look at our members of Congress’ work, she represents mine, and I represent hers, that’s how it should be.
Cuellar stated that he does not believe his party has made significant immigration reforms despite seeing a semitrailer full of dead migrants left in San Antonio.
He said, “They are working towards certain things that they believe are right.”
Cuellar explained how he would handle illegal migrants crossing the southern border.
He said, “The metric that I use is that the law must be looked at to be enforced.” He stated, “I take the law into consideration and I enforce it.”
He also stressed the importance of border patrol, ICE, and not being removed during an influx at southern borders.
“I believe we should provide more funds to our border patrols and ICE When you look at what is happening at Laredo and the Valley, and how many border agents are there, 60% of them are in border processing centers.”
Cuellar was questioned about his thoughts regarding the Associated Press report claiming that nearly 1.7 million people have changed their party affiliation in the past year.
He stated, “It should be obvious Democrats that open borders are not something you can support.” You cannot be against oil and gas, and you can’t support getting rid of ICE and border patrols. You can’t be against oil and gas and you can’t support getting rid of border patrols or ICE.
