U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has delivered a powerful speech directed at young white supremacists, telling them it's "not too late" to reject hate.
The politician made the comments on stage at a vigil for the victims of the weekend gun massacres in the American cities of El Paso, Texas, where a gunman killed 22 people and Dayton, Ohio where a further nine people were shot dead in a second unrelated attack.
Pleading with young American men and women who have been “radicalised in a funnel of vitriol,” Ocasio-Cortez insisted there was an alternative to "falling in the grips of white supremacy.”
“Come back, it’s not too late,” she told the crowd.
“There is a mother waiting for you, I know it," she continued. "I know there’s a teacher waiting for you, saying, ‘What happened to my kid? What happened to my friend?'”
"We will always be here and hold space for you to come back. We will love you back. You are not too far gone,” she said.
Lawmakers and advocates are calling on the US Congress to enact gun control legislation and encouraged citizens to vote for politicians who backed these measures.
According to Business Insider, US federal investigators are treating the El Paso massacre where shooter Patrick Crusius, who is believed to have published a white supremacist screed online 20 minutes before the attack - as an act of domestic terrorism.
