Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claimed Friday that she had yet to hear about the sexual assault allegation against Lt. Gov Justin Fairfax (D-VA), one of three scandals that have thrown Virginia into political turmoil.
In a video taken by America Rising, a reporter asks Ocasio-Cortez if Fairfax’s accuser, Dr. Vanessa Tyson, should be believed.
.@AOC asked about #JustinFairfax allegations in VA. Response: "Haven't Look At All Into The Situation" pic.twitter.com/pQF0uhe5nd
— Sarah Dolan (@sarahedolan) February 8, 2019
“Congresswoman, I just want to ask you if you think that the accuser of Lieutenant Governor Fairfax should be believed?” the reporter asks.
“I haven’t looked at all into the situation,” Ocasio-Cortez replies, before becoming inaudible.
Struggling to hear the end of her explanation, the reporter says, “I didn’t quite catch the end, I’m sorry about that.”
“I said I [inaudible] look forward to looking into the scenario, but I haven’t heard anything about it quite yet,” she claims.
This week, Tyson broke her silence about the purported her allegation against Fairfax, which she said occurred during the 2004 Democrat National Convention in Boston.
“With tremendous anguish, I am now sharing this information about my experience and setting the record straight,” Tyson said in a statement through law firm Katz Marshall & Banks. “It has been extremely difficult to relive that traumatic experience from 2004. Mr. Fairfax has tried to brand me as a liar to a national audience, in service to his political ambitions, and has threatened litigation. Given his false assertions, I’m compelled to make clear what happened.”
Tyson then detailed how the Virginia Democrat turned “consensual kissing” into a “sexual assault.” She accused Fairfax forcing her to “perform oral sex on him” even as she cried and tried to pull her head away.
Fairfax vehemently denied any wrongdoing, claiming in a statement Wednesday that the encounter was consensual.
“At no time did she express to me any discomfort or concern about our interactions, neither during that encounter nor doing the months following it, when she stayed in touch with me, nor the past fifteen years,” the Lt. governor said. “She in no way indicated that anything that had happened between us made her uncomfortable.”
In an earlier statement, he claimed that he “has never assaulted anyone – ever – in any way, shape or form.”
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