Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke out on Instagram on Monday telling thousands of followers that she is a survivor of sexual assault and that the January 6 attack on the Capitol further traumatized her.
“I’m a survivor of sexual assault, and I haven’t told many people that in my life,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the video.
AOC recounting her horrifying experience hiding in her office during the insurrection.
“I thought I was going to die…I have never been quieter in my entire life.” pic.twitter.com/t2P6FU3mFU
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) February 2, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez went on to compare Republicans to abusers because of their calls to get past the attack.
“They’re trying to tell us to move on without any accountability, without any truth-telling, or without confronting the extreme damage, loss of life, trauma,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The reason I say this, and the reason I’m getting emotional, is because they told us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what happened, or even telling us to apologize.”
“These are the tactics of abusers,” she said.
In the Instagram video, Ocasio-Cortez blamed former President Donald Trump for inciting the riot and said that Republicans — Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) specifically — are also responsible for the violence because they called for investigating the integrity of the 2020 presidential race.
“They knew that these violent people needed the lie, and they chose, because they thought it would be politically advantageous to them, they chose to tell the lie,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The Boston Globe reported on her video:
In discussing the dark event, Ocasio-Cortez related her trauma as a survivor of sexual assault to what she endured as she hid in her office, believing the insurrectionists were attempting to find and potentially harm her. She shared how she thought her life was in grave danger as supporters of Trump stormed the Capitol, ransacking the building in an attack that ultimately left several people dead.
“All of the sudden I hear that whoever was trying to get inside got into my office,” Ocasio-Cortez said, as she talked about hiding behind the door of her bathroom. “Then I just start to hear these yells of, ‘Where is she? Where is she?’ And I just thought to myself: They got inside.”
“I thought I was going to die,” Ocasio-Cortez said, before realizing that the person she initially believed had breached her office was a Capitol police officer.
The Globe reported that she decided instead of leaving the Capitol to hide “for hours” in Rep. Katie Porter’s (D-CA) office.
My story isn’t the only story, nor is it the central story of what happened on Jan 6th.
It is just one story of many of those whose lives were endangered at the Capitol by the lies, threats, and violence fanned by the cowardice of people who chose personal gain above democracy.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 2, 2021
“My story is not the only story, nor is it the central story, it’s one of many stories of what these people did in creating this environment,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “These folks who are just trying to tell us to move on are just like pulling the page, they’re using the same tactics, of every other abuser who tells you to move on.”
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com.
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