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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, said she was not surprised by President Trump’s racist attacks.

Ocasio-Cortez vowed to stay focused despite the President’s recent attacks.

“We’ll stay focused on our agenda and we won’t get caught slipping. Because all of this is a distraction. It is a distraction from what is most important and from our core values as American citizens,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez argued the president was attacking the four congresswomen because he can’t defend his own policies. 

“Weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy,” she said at the press conference. 

“He can’t look a child in the face and he can’t look at all Americans and justify why this country is throwing them in cages,” she said. “So instead he tells us that I should go back to the great borough of the Bronx and make it better. And that’s what I’m here to do.” 

She also told a story about her dad bringing her to the Capitol reflecting pool as a child and telling her the nation’s capital belongs to everyone. 

“I want to tell children across this country is that no matter what the president says, this country belongs to you,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And it belongs to everyone and today that notion, that very notion was challenged.”