Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned Monday evening whether a Capitol Police officer purposefully put her at risk during the Capitol riot.
The New York Democrat took to Instagram Live to discuss her experiences during the Jan. 6 rioting, when rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, committing acts of vandalism and postponing the certification of the 2020 electoral college results as members of Congress were forced to evacuate the building.
“Hide, hide, run and hide,” Ocasio-Cortez recalled one of her staffers telling her.
After hearing loud banging on her office door, Ocasio-Cortez said she hid in her bathroom as she braced herself for her office to be breached.
A man broke into her office, she said, and she could hear him yelling before and after he entered, “Where is she? Where is she?”
“I thought I was going to die,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I have never been quieter in my entire life.”
AOC recounting her horrifying experience hiding in her office during the insurrection.
“I thought I was going to die…I have never been quieter in my entire life.” pic.twitter.com/t2P6FU3mFU
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) February 2, 2021
Her staffer “G” then told her that it was safe to come out, she said, and she found that the man who had burst into her office was actually a Capitol Police officer, who she described as a “white man in a black beanie.”
She described the officer’s attitude as seemingly full of anger and hostility.
“It didn’t feel right,” she said. “Because he was looking at me with a tremendous amount of anger and hostility. Things weren’t adding up. There was no partner there. He wasn’t yelling ‘this is Capitol Police, this is Capitol Police.’ And he was looking at me in all of this anger and hostility,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She said she wondered if she was reading into the situation and projecting “something onto him,” but said that her staffer “G” also expressed her feelings about the officer.
“We couldn’t tell, we couldn’t read if this was a good situation or a bad situation,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Like so many other communities in this country, just that presence doesn’t necessarily give you a signal if you’re safe or not. So the situation did not feel ok.”
The officer directed her to go to another building where she ran with her staffer, Ocasio-Cortez said.
Story cited here.
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