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Veterans Fire Back After Ocasio-Cortez Spox Denies Walkout

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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American veterans Silvio Mazzella and Anthony Vitaliano confirmed Sunday that they did, in fact, walk out of a meeting with Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Silvio Mazzella, 74, a Vietnam War veteran, and Army veteran Anthony Vitaliano, 78, appeared on “Fox & Friends” following claims from Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent that only one person left the meeting. “The only person that left the meeting while it was underway was someone who had to go pick up their children,” Trent said.

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“It was a prepared agenda for the — let’s put in this way, she is our congresswoman from January, we haven’t seen her in our area until May 28, Tuesday at 5:30. Everybody else in the United States has seen her except her own district,” Vitaliano said, noting that the intent of the meeting was to address local issues.

But then one board member, a Yemeni immigrant who is now a U.S. citizen, brought up the civil war that is ongoing in Yemen, and Ocasio-Cortez responded by blaming American actions in the area for the unrest.

“That’s what started me off. Her comment was that it’s ‘American bombs,'” Vitaliano added.

“That’s insulting,” Mazzella agreed.

“I heard that, ‘American bombs.’ In my head, I say to myself, ‘what about the Iranian bullets and Iranian bombs? Aren’t they killing people, too?'”

Mazzella argued that Ocasio-Cortez’s comments reminded him of the protests he faced when he first returned from war.

“Didn’t feel good,” he said. “‘It reminds me when I came home from ‘Nam and we had the protesters here. You know that’s not the way to treat people.”

Vitaliano said that Ocasio-Cortez had also referred to President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “two clones,” and not in a positive manner. (RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez Defends Democrat Whose ‘Appalling Accusation’ Was Stricken From The Record)

“There was another insult. Israel is one of our strongest allies,” Mazzella added. “To do something like that and come out with a statement like that is not, that’s not who we are.”

“It was like Netanyahu and the president are two peas in a pod,” Vitaliano continued. “They’re the same. They are no good. They are no good for the area. The area. And that’s where we got the second part about the tension in the Middle East what’s going on. Right after this is when I left. She says that the tension is being caused by President Trump because he withdrew from the Iran deal and that is why we are having all this tension. I think she should do her homework that tension has been going on since 1948.”

That, according to Vitaliano and Mazzella, is when they decided that they had had enough and walked out of the meeting.

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