AOC Calls for Accountability After Trauma of Capitol Riots
![Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, Aug. 24, 2020 [AP/Tom Williams]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f21dbb91adde3260d4ba1ef/1612317784010-FCDI40OVBE2782VW9EWT/aoc-capitol-riots.jpg)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, Aug. 24, 2020 [AP/Tom Williams]
On Monday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) broadcast live on Instagram, detailing her experience of the Jan. 6 Capitol mob attack and the trauma she’s confronted since.
To an audience of over 100,000 people, Ocasio-Cortez recounted hearing banging on her office door, followed by shouts of, “Where is she?” – and then shutting herself in the bathroom. She thought she was going to die. She was disturbed to find that the person yelling was a “hostile”-seeming Capitol police officer, and says that she and her staff received little assistance from him while evacuating. Her video has amassed over 2.5 million views.
During the broadcast, Ocasio-Cortez spoke openly about being a survivor of sexual trauma. She compared statements downplaying the riot by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to the language of abusers. Many other congressional Republicans have also called for unity and healing in place of any real accountability. While Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other Republicans have distanced themselves from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) – one of the leading election fraud conspiracy theorists – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) met with Trump just last week to discuss keeping the far-right in control of the party.
Unity and healing are meaningless without accountability. In her livestream, Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged that she was one of many who experienced trauma that day at the Capitol – indeed, two cops who faced the mob that day have died by suicide. Ocasio-Cortez has disclosed her own trauma to remind Republicans who encouraged the riot of what they owe to the many people who suffered not only physical harm, but invisible damage.
Watch Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recount the trauma of the Capitol riots:
This is the powerful moment @AOC says she is a survivor of sexual assault and describes the trauma of the Capitol riot.
— AJ+ (@ajplus) February 2, 2021
"When we go through trauma ... trauma compounds on each other." pic.twitter.com/UCULUcY66m
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