New U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't holding back when it comes to President Donald Trump.

In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes," the 29-year-old New York Democrat said Trump is "a symptom of a problem."

"The president certainly didn't invent racism, but he's certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things," she told correspondent Anderson Cooper.

Cooper then asked: "Do you believe President Trump is a racist?"

"Yeah, yeah, no question," she said, adding that Trump uses words that are "historic dog whistles of white supremacy."

>> Watch the clip here

Ocasio-Cortez pointed to Trump's reaction to a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counter-protester was killed.

"When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it's night and day," she said.

>> Watch more here

The White House slammed Ocasio-Cortez's words in a statement, saying Trump "has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms."

>> Read more trending news

"Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez's sheer ignorance on the matter can't cover the fact that President Trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform," the statement said, according to CBS News.

Read more here.

About the Author

Featured

Orange Crush event organizer Steven Smalls looks out at Tybee Island's South Beach, site of the 2025 HBCU spring break festival scheduled for April 19 on Georgia's coast. (Justin Taylor/The Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Credit: Justin Taylor for The Atlanta Journal Constitution