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AOC said she was hiding in the bathroom in the Capitol and heard a man shouting, "Where is she?! Where is she?!"
@AOC looked through the door hinge to see if she could see anything. She saw a white man, in her office, and she had never been quieter in her whole life.
@AOC looked through the door hinge to see if she could see anything. She saw a white man, in her office, and she had never been quieter in her whole life.
Her staffer told her to come out. AOC saw that the man was a Capitol police officer, and he was looking at her with hostility. He didn't identify himself as a member of the Capitol police. Her legislative director also agreed he didn't know if the man was going to help or hurt.
The police officer told AOC to go to a building at a certain level, but that level was street level. He didn't give them a specific or secure location to go to. It was the same time the Capitol was being stormed. AOC & her staffer were in the open hallway, not knowing where to go
She and her staffer decided to run down a spiral staircase toward a member's office they knew about. They heard yelling and screaming from the street, getting louder. They bang on the member's office door. No one is in the hallway, they're on their own.
. @AOC saw Rep Katie Porter, knocked on her door & asked to shelter with her. And she and her staffer went inside. AOC said she was at a ten, "fight or flight," and she thought "she was going to die" in that moment. She fully expected an insurrectionist to turn the corner w/ a gun
AOC said she and Katie Porter talked about who would be safer, and whether members of congress with less white sounding names would face more danger.
(On their nameplates outside of their offices).
AOC said she thinks about that Capitol officer - did he not say he was Capitol police on purpose? Did he lose himself in that moment? Did he not give them the extraction info bc he forgot or was it all intentional? The "uncertainty was deeply unsettling," she says.
AOC said there's more details she's not ready to share. She wound up staying with @AyannaPressley until about 4 am that night. Rep Pressley immediately identified to AOC that her experience was "traumatizing" and that she needed to take care of herself.
AOC talks about how people don't want to be victims, said there's the trauma of what she went through, and also the trauma afterward of people not believing her or publicly embarrassing her...and how after a while, you don't want to believe it either.
AOC said that "people telling you to move on are using the same tactics as every other abuser who tells you to move on."
AOC said that they knew that violence was planned for the 6th, and that the violence "needed someone to tell the lie" that our elections were fraudulent. Says Cruz, Hawley knew it was a lie, knew the violent people needed the lie, and chose to tell the lie for political advantage
Says Republicans are refusing to acknowledge their actions, they are saying they will "choose to endanger their colleagues again for political gain."
"We are not safe with people in political power who are willing to endanger the lives of others" for political gain.
"We are not safe with people in political power who are willing to endanger the lives of others" for political gain.
AOC says hers is not the central story of the insurrection. But there are many hundreds of stories, and every time a Republican tells us to move on, we need to tell these stories.
Ok the end, wow @AOC. Thank you so much for sharing your story tonight, and I'm so sorry for everything you went through. We are all very happy you're safe!
