Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday night recalled the “traumatizing” experience of witnessing the deadly insurrection of the Capitol in real time.
In remarks made in an hour-long Instagram Live video on Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez described how she feared for her life during the “pretty traumatizing event.”
“I had a pretty traumatizing event happen to me,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I do not know if I can even disclose the full details of that event, due to security concerns. But I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die.”
Ocasio-Cortez was among the lawmakers who were taken to a secure location while a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol building, which left five people dead. She told viewers of her Instagram Live video that she wasn’t exaggerating when she said that House members were “nearly assassinated.”
“(Jan. 6) was an extremely traumatizing event and it is not an exaggeration to say that many many members of the House were nearly assassinated. It’s just not an exaggeration to say that at all,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We were very lucky that things happened within certain minutes that allowed members to escape the House floor unharmed. But many of us narrowly escaped death.”
Ocasio-Cortez added that she still felt that her safety was endangered even when she was in the secure room with other lawmakers due to fears of QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers, who have a history of targeting her, disclosing her location.
“I myself did not even feel safe going to that extraction point, because there were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers and frankly white supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point, who I know, and who I had felt would disclose my location and allow me to, who would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc.,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Ocasio-Cortez also called out several GOPers for refusing to wear masks while sheltering from the Capitol riots in a secure location, following the COVID-19 diagnoses of three Democratic lawmakers in the past week.
