Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-CortezOn The Money: Anxious Democrats push for vote on COVID-19 aid | Pelosi, Mnuchin ready to restart talks | Weekly jobless claims increase | Senate treads close to shutdown deadline McCarthy says there will be a peaceful transition if Biden wins Anxious Democrats amp up pressure for vote on COVID-19 aid MORE (D-N.Y.) said she wants to know about the "racism" behind the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census during a contempt hearing for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Wilbur Louis RossTrump admin asks Supreme Court to fast-track excluding people in U.S. illegally from census Trump 'very happy' to allow TikTok to operate in US if security concerns resolved TikTok, WeChat to be banned Sunday from US app stores MORE.

The New York Democrat referenced documents recently made public that allege that a Republican strategist conducted a study in 2015 showing that adding the question would harm Democrats and Hispanic communities, while helping Republicans and white, non-Hispanic communities.

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“I want to know why this question was magically added after we have seen that a political operative knew and detailed an intent to intimidate racial and immigrant communities for a partisan purpose, saying this will hurt Democrats and help Republicans,” she said.

“I want to know about the racism and the very disturbing history that we’re seeing here,” she added.

Ocasio-Cortez also questioned involvement of figures such as Stephen Bannon and immigration hard-liner Kris Kobach in adding the question to the census.

She said that congressional questions were resulting in "stonewalling" and a "lack of answers."

.@AOC fired up on the census citizenship question: "I want to know why we have skipped every normal, mandated procedure in testing how this question gets added in the census ... I want to know about corruption, I want to know about the racism." pic.twitter.com/LjTmzWLyI1 — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 12, 2019

President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE on Wednesday asserted executive privilege over some documents on adding the question to the census, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. The Commerce Department also notified House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene CummingsBlack GOP candidate accuses Behar of wearing black face in heated interview Overnight Health Care: US won't join global coronavirus vaccine initiative | Federal panel lays out initial priorities for COVID-19 vaccine distribution | NIH panel: 'Insufficient data' to show treatment touted by Trump works House Oversight Democrats to subpoena AbbVie in drug pricing probe MORE (D-Md.) that Trump had asserted executive privilege over some of its subpoenaed documents.