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.
âHide, hide, run and hide,â 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, âWhere is she? Where is she?â
âI thought I was going to die,â Ocasio-Cortez said. âI have never been quieter in my entire life.â (RELATED: âDevoutâ Or âExtremeâ: Media Treats Catholicism In Vastly Different Ways Depending On Politics)
AOC recounting her horrifying experience hiding in her office during the insurrection.
âI thought I was going to dieâŚI have never been quieter in my entire life.â pic.twitter.com/t2P6FU3mFU
â Justice Democrats (@justicedems) February 2, 2021
Her staffer âGâ 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 âwhite man in a black beanie.â
She described the officerâs attitude as seemingly full of anger and hostility.
âIt didnât feel right,â she said. âBecause he was looking at me with a tremendous amount of anger and hostility. Things werenât adding up. There was no partner there. He wasnât yelling âthis is Capitol Police, this is Capitol Police.â And he was looking at me in all of this anger and hostility,â Ocasio-Cortez said.
She said she wondered if she was reading into the situation and projecting âsomething onto him,â but said that her staffer âGâ also expressed her feelings about the officer.
âWe couldnât tell, we couldnât read if this was a good situation or a bad situation,â Ocasio-Cortez said. âLike so many other communities in this country, just that presence doesnât necessarily give you a signal if youâre safe or not. So the situation did not feel ok.â
The officer directed her to go to another building where she ran with her staffer, Ocasio-Cortez said. (RELATED: 18-Year-Old Exposes Her Parents On Twitter For Attending Capitol Riots)
âIt wasnât until we get to that building, we realize he didnât give us a specific location,â she continued. Ocasio-Cortez said she frantically searched for Democratic California Rep. Katie Porterâs office as she heard noise of the rioting close by. She and her staffer took refuge in Porterâs office, she said.
Ocasio-Cortez speculated about whether the Capitol Police officer who entered her office purposefully put her at risk, asking, âDid he not say he was Capitol police on purpose? Was he trying to actually put us in a vulnerable situation?â
Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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This post originally appeared on and written by:
Mary Margaret Olohan
The Daily Caller 2021-02-02 04:20:00