Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was forced to apologize Monday for blocking a former Brooklyn elected official from her Twitter account after he was critical of her.
Ocasio-Cortez was due to testify in a federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday as part of a high-profile lawsuit that she violated a man’s First Amendment right. She “chickened out” and settled instead of appearing in court, critics say.
In her statement, the Democrat said she was wrong for silencing conservatives, a part of the settlement for a lawsuit conservative Jewish leader Dov Hikind had brought against her this summer.
“Mr. Hikind has a First Amendment right to express his views and should not be blocked for them,” she said.
“In retrospect, it was wrong and improper and does not reflect the values I cherish,” her statement read. “I sincerely apologize for blocking Mr. Hikind.”
Hikind, a former New York state Assemblyman, said he was blocked from Ocasio-Cortez’s @AOC campaign twitter account, which has 5.7 million followers, after he criticized her comments comparing border detention camps to concentration camps.
Hikind is a prominent Jewish leader in the state, and sued Ocasio-Cortez for silencing his First Amendment rights to free speech.
Hikind said he was pleased with the representative’s comments.
“She never apologizes,” Hikind said at a press conference on Monday. “So this is rather remarkable that she sincerely apologizes for blocking me. This is a great moment. I hope that more good can come out of this.”
“I couldn’t ask for much more at this point,” he said.
“I knew that I never harassed her, because that’s not what I do,” Hikind said. “I just have a different point of view.”
He said he hoped the settlement and apology would be the beginning of a dialogue between himself and Ocasio-Cortez.
Hikind invited the far-left congresswoman to join the Jewish community for a talk about the horrors of the Holocaust. He asked her to meet with survivors who saw family forced into gas chambers and those who were tortured in Nazi-run concentration camps.
“Let the survivors share with her what a concentration camp means to a survivor of the Holocaust,” Hikind said.
Ocasio-Cortez has not accepted his invitation.
Hikind had filed his lawsuit on First Amendment grounds this year. It came after a federal appeals panel had said President Donald Trump couldn’t block people who criticized him from his Twitter account.
Today was a great victory not only for me, but for citizens and free speech everywhere!
However, the fight against antisemitism and its apologists continues and we need your help to achieve more such victories! Please do your part by visiting https://t.co/7UTMXpMF2f today pic.twitter.com/dtuIP2ClMj
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) November 4, 2019
The Associated Press contributed to this article