FRESNO, Calif. — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says words matter and she’s gotten death threats after hateful messages about her have aired.

The New York Democrat tweeted Tuesday after a minor league baseball team in California aired a Memorial Day video that lumped her image with those of Kim Jong-un and Fidel Castro.

“What people don’t (maybe do) realize is when [organizations] air these hateful messages, my life changes [because] of the flood of death threats they inspire. I’ve had mornings where I wake up & the 1st thing I do [with] my coffee is review photos of the men (it’s always men) who want to kill me,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

The freshman representative added she receives increased death threats whenever Fox News airs “hateful” coverage of her.

“I don’t even get to see all of them. Just the ones that have been flagged as particularly troubling. It happens whenever Fox gets particularly aggressive [and] hateful, too. Young interns have to constantly hear hateful messages (far beyond disagreement) from [people] we don’t even [represent,]” she said.

“All of this is to say that words matter, and can have consequences for safety,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

The Fresno Bee says the Fresno Grizzlies apologized to Ocasio-Cortez for the scoreboard video that was broadcast during Monday night’s doubleheader.

The video was called a Memorial Day tribute and featured patriotic images playing behind images of President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural speech. Toward the end, when Reagan mentions “enemies of freedom,” the video shows images of Kim, Castro and Ocasio-Cortez.

The team says the slap was unintentional and says it failed to properly vet the video it found on YouTube.

• Washington Times reporter Bailey Vogt contributed to this article.

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