Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, when reporting her distressing experience with the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill, said publicly for the first time that she is a sexual assault survivor and said that she was ordered to “move on” with the riots of the month past reminded her of the abusers’ tactics.
“These people who tell us to ‘move on’, which is no big deal, that we should forget what happened or even tell us to apologize – these are the same tactics as abusers,” she said. “And I am a sexual assault survivor.”
In a live video on Instagram on Monday, Ocasio-Cortez shared his memories of January 6, the day when supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol, while lawmakers were in session to assert Joe Biden’s victory in presidential election.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the country’s best-known progressive voices, said there were times that day when she thought she would not leave the complex alive.
Hiding in the bathroom of her office behind the door, she said, “I started to hear these screams: ‘Where is she? Where is she?’ This was the moment when I thought it was over. “
But the screaming man turned out to be a Capitol cop, who, she said, was unable to communicate with his group where the extraction point was or to accompany them there.
“He didn’t give us the location of the extraction point because he forgot or was really trying to put us in a vulnerable place […] situation? “, she said.” Just the very uncertainty that you don’t know whether that person was really trying to protect you or not is deeply disturbing. “
As the dust settled after the riot, Ocasio-Cortez said Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley had given her good advice.
“What you experienced was traumatic. And you need to take care of yourself,” she said.
Here is the video of Ocasio-Cortez on Instagram: