Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram live on Monday night to recap her experience during the insurrection by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. During her broadcast to followers she spoke about the trauma of the incident and revealed for the first time that she is a sexual assault survivor, getting emotional when describing how trauma builds on trauma.
“I hear these huge violent bangs on my door… like someone was trying to break the door down,” AOC said, describing the moment she and a staffer ducked the rioters. “And there were no voices, no yells, no one saying who they were …. just boom, boom, boom.”
The staffer told here to “hide” and she hid behind the door in her bathroom: “This was the moment where I thought everything was over. I thought I was going to die.”
AOC continued: “I'm a survivor of sexual assault. And I haven't told many people that in my life. But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other.”
AOC added: “This past week, Ted Cruz and now Reps Chip Roy and some of the other representatives who actually encouraged people to attack other members of Congress or tweeted out the location of the Speaker are now telling me to apologize for saying and speaking truth to what happened. These are the tactics of abusers, or rather, these are the tactics that abusers use. So when I see this happen, how I feel and how I felt, was not again. I'm not gonna let this happen again. I'm not gonna let it happen to me again, I'm not gonna let it happen to the other people who have been victimized again, and I'm not gonna let it happen to this country.”
The full Instagram live video which has been viewed nearly 1.5 million times.
