New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently called Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts a racist after comments at a news conference Monday regarding whether or not illegal immigrants in meat packing plants would get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Imagine being so racist that you go out of your way to ensure that the people who prepare *your* food are unvaccinated. https://t.co/QtWoJ6XG72
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 5, 2021
Ricketts responded to AOC’s comments at coronavirus response news briefing today citing the spread of fake news.
“AOC is someone who doesn’t care about Nebraska. There have been far left democrat activists who have been tweeting out fake news and she just picked up this fake news and tweeted it out without finding out what the facts of the ground are, what our vaccine plan was here in Nebraska. This demonstrates that she doesn’t care about Nebraska or the people in Nebraska,” Ricketts said.
AOC responded shortly after on Twitter.
Given that I want EVERY Nebraskan to have vaccine access, including *every* meatpacker and not just *some*, I think I care about more Nebraskans than even Ricketts does. https://t.co/laHIhGnrfy
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 6, 2021
Ricketts clarified today that meat packing plants are required to have legal workers and it’s not the state’s responsibility to enforce that.
He said the state will not require an I.D. or proof of citizenship.
“Your citizenship is not checked before you receive the vaccine just like all vaccines but by matter of law if you’re working in one of these facilities you’re supposed to be legal,” Ricketts said.