AOC shares harrowing Capitol riot experience, reveals she’s a sexual assault survivor
The New York Congresswoman shared more details about her horrifying experience during the Jan. 6 insurrection .
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has shared more details about the Jan. 6 insurrection and revealed that she is a survivor of sexual assault. The New York Congresswoman took to Instagram on Monday night (Feb. 1) to speak with her followers about the incident and her traumatic experience.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said on Live. While AOC has said she felt her life was in danger during the siege before, she previously stopped short of providing further details citing security concerns. On Monday, however, she revealed more.
AOC said that she had been hiding in a men’s bathroom during the attack when a man ran into her office yelling, “Where is she?”
She recalled hearing “these huge violent bangs on my door… like someone was trying to break the door down.”
“I start to hear these yells of ‘Where is she? Where is she?’ And I just thought to myself, ‘They got inside.’ This was the moment where I thought everything was over,” she said.
Thankfully, however, the man ended up being a Capitol Police officer who escorted her to another building where she hid with Rep. Katie Porter.
“I had a lot of thoughts; you have a lot of thoughts when you’re in a situation like that,” she reflected. “I have never been quieter in my entire life.”
Ocasio-Cortez revealed she was a survivor of sexual assault while speaking about her compounded trauma from the insurrection; where she feared she would lose her life.
“I’m a survivor of sexual assault,” she said. “… I haven’t told many people that, but when we go through trauma; trauma compounds on each other.”
“The reason I’m getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on… these are the same tactics of abusers,” she added, referring to some Republican politicians who have said it’s time to “move on” from the attack.
“There’s no… something really big happens to you and then you deal with it and you move on, and then something else happens to you [and] you deal with that.”
“We cannot move on without accountability,” she added. “We cannot heal without accountability. All these people telling us to move on are doing so at their own convenience.”
Rep. Porter also recounted their experience sheltering together during an interview with MSNBC. The California Democrat said the thing that stood out most to her was when AOC said, “I hope I get to be a mom; I hope I don’t die today.”
See a clip from AOC’s emotional IG session below.