Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says She Feared For Her Life During The Capitol Riot And Tells Ted Cruz That ‘You Will Never Be President’

With over 100,000 people watching on Instagram Live, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) detailed the “close encounter” she had with the MAGA rioters during last week’s failed coup at the Capitol building. “Wednesday was an extremely traumatizing event. And it was not an exaggeration to say that many members of the House were nearly assassinated,” she said. “I didn’t even feel safe going to that extraction point because there were QAnon and white supremacist members of Congress who I felt would disclose my location and create opportunities to allow me to be hurt.” AOC, who “didn’t feel safe around other members of Congress,” thought she “was going to die.”

The rioters brought pitchforks and zip-ties and Confederate flags to the U.S. Capitol; a wooden gallows was erected on the lawn; and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), one of the members of “The Squad” (AOC is also part of the group), told the Boston Globe that “every panic button in my office had been torn out — the whole unit.”

Ocasio-Cortez was “unable to provide further details about the January 6 incident due to security concerns,” according to the Huffington Post, but she did later senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for their role in the riot. “Ted Cruz, you do not belong in the United States Senate. Josh Hawley, you do not belong in the United States Senate, so get out,” she said. More generally, Ocasio-Cortez told any Republican who supported President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election that “you will never be president. You will never command the respect of this country, never… And you should resign, and so should every member of congress who voted to overturn the election results because they would rather cling to power instead of respect our democracy.”

Here’s a thread of her Instagram Live talk, along with reactions:

https://twitter.com/melwedde/status/1349344645575282689

https://twitter.com/CharlotteAlter/status/1349207697665757185

https://twitter.com/KimberlyNFoster/status/1349326405335740423

https://twitter.com/FredTJoseph/status/1349340992697208832

(Via the Huffington Post)