Freshman lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's criticism of the pro-second amendment rally in Richmond, Virginia, is not worthy of a response, says Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins.
"Her comments, I don't even believe they deserve any response at all; they're not worthy of it," he said Tuesday during an appearance on Fox News.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., ripped into the county's law enforcement by contrasting the minimal police presence at the rally to that at Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
"There's this gun rights protest that's happening down in Richmond, on MLK day, but here's the image that has stuck with me the most about that – when we go out to march for the dignity and recognition of the lives of people like Freddie Gray and Eric Gardner, the whole place is surrounded by police in riot gear, without a gun in sight – and here are all these people flying confederate flags with semi-automatic weapons, and there's almost no police officers at that protest," Ocasio-Cortez told moderator Ta-Nehisi Coates during a Martin Luther King Day event Monday.
"And, here are all of these people flying Confederate flags with semi-automatic weapons, and [there are] almost no police officers at that protest.
"So, who or what are our institutions protecting from whom?" she asked.
Jenkins said there were hundreds of officers on site.
"To say that there wasn't a strong presence would be wrong," Jenkins told Fox News host Shannon Bream.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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