Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., slammed “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s profanity-laced rant at a rally he hosted with fellow progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as “unhinged.”
“The level of profanity here is so shocking as to be unbecoming of a Member of Congress,” Torres, who departed the Congressional Progressive Caucus earlier this year over differences on Israel, wrote on X. “There is nothing in Jamaal Bowman’s unhinged tirade that remotely resembles the decency of the people I know and represent in the South Bronx.”
During a speech in the Bronx riddled with expletives, Bowman lashed out against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Political Action Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel advocacy group supporting his Democratic primary challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
“We are going to show f—ing AIPAC, the power of the motherf—ing South Bronx!” Bowman said at Saturday’s rally held in St. Mary’s Park in Mott Haven. “People ask me why I got a foul mouth. What am I supposed to do? You’re coming after me! You’re coming after my family! You’re coming after my children! I’m not supposed to fight back?”
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“We’re going to show them who the f— we are!” he added, jumping around the stage.
Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., rallied for Bowman in a show of progressive support, as the incumbent Democrat lags behind Latimer by double digits ahead of Tuesday’s primary to represent New York’s 16th congressional district, which includes Westchester County and portions of the Bronx. Viral clips also showed fellow “Squad” member Ocasio-Cortez forcefully letting her hair down as she emphatically banged the podium, knocking over her microphones at one point. The congresswoman shouted over sexually explicit lyrics from the Cardi B song “Enough” that sounded over a speaker system during her remarks.
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At another point, Bowman, wearing a yellow T-shirt with his sleeves rolled up, waved a wooden stool up and down on the Bronx stage, before leading the crowd in a chant of, “Cease-fire now, cease-fire now.”
Bowman risks losing his seat amid divisions between progressives and moderates in the Democratic Party over the Israel-Hamas war.
Latimer’s more high-profile supporters include former Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., and Hillary Clinton.
Torres has not officially made an endorsement in the race, telling Axios last week he had a “general rule of not weighing in against a Congressional Democrat who has not weighed in against me.”
“But Bowman’s gratuitous attack on my character might cause me to rethink that rule. Stay tuned,” Torres said.
