AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
- Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez revealed during an Instagram Live on Monday night that she is a survivor of a sexual assault.
- Ocasio-Cortez spoke about how the trauma of the Capitol insurrection compounded her trauma.
- She said she was advised to “move on,” and she accused the GOP of using “the tactics of abusers.”
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed that she is a survivor of sexual assault, and she compared Republicans who’ve urged the country to move on from the January 6 insurrection to abusers.
“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 of Republicans who oppose impeaching President Donald Trump and want the country to move on from the Capitol siege.
“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,” the congresswoman said, close to tears, to about 100,000 viewers on Instagram Live.
“I’m a survivor of sexual assault and I haven’t told many people that in my life,” she continued, explaining how the experience of the Capitol insurrection compounded her trauma.
—Ryan Khosravi ✨ (@ryepastrami) February 2, 2021
“But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other,” she said. “Whether you had a negligent parent, or whether you had someone who was verbally abusive to you, whether you are a survivor of abuse, whether you experience any sort of trauma in your life, small to large. These episodes can compound on each other.”
Ocasio-Cortez appeared on Instagram Live to offer her account of the January 6 Capitol insurrection. She revealed that she was able to hide out with Rep. Katie Porter in her office, and also shared that she had temporarily locked herself in her office bathroom when she believed her office was being breached (the person turned out to be a Capitol policeman).
“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 after relating her experience during the insurrection. “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.”
Last month, Ocasio-Cortez appeared in an Instagram livestream where she alluded to a “very close encounter” where she thought she was “going to die.”
She told that story with more details on Monday night, describing how a Capitol Police officer banged on the door to her office while she and a staffer hid inside because they thought the officer was a member of the mob.
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