US Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that she is a survivor of sexual assault.
Politics revealed her trauma when she accused Republicans who evaded responsibility for last month’s Capitol riots of using “abusive tactics.”
“I am a survivor of sexual assault,” she said, struggling to hold back the tears. “And this I have not told many people in my life.”
Ocasio-Cortez is one of the highest profile Democrats in Congress.
The congresswoman, who describes herself as a democratic socialist and represents the district 14 in New York City, is also often a target of conservatives.
In a broadcast on Instagram on Monday, the young woman from 31 years revealed little about his experience of sexual assault, but said: “ When we go through a trauma, the trauma accumulates between each other “.
He criticized conservative Republicans, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, for denying what he described as their responsibility in the assault on the Capitol complex, which left five dead.
After Cruz agreed last week with Ocasio-Cortez on a policy issue, she lashed out: “You made me almost m They will kill three weeks ago, so don’t participate in this. ”
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
On Monday’s Instagram Live, Ocasio-Cortez criticized Chip Roy , a congressman from Texas, for demanding that he apologize to Cruz.
“These are the abusers’ tactics,” he said during the broadcast to some 150, 000 viewers. “Or rather, these are the tactics abusers use.”
“And so, when I see this happening, what I feel, what I felt was: ‘Not again.’ . I’m not letting this happen again. I’m not going to let it happen to me again. I’m not going to let it happen again to the other people who have been victims of this situation. And I am not going to allow this to happen in our country. We are not going to allow it to happen. ”
- The 65 days leading up to the assault on the Washington Capitol
“Go ahead”
He also pointed to Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who joined Cruz in challenging the results of the November presidential election amid discredited claims from the now former president Donald Trump that the vote had been stolen.
A crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 as lawmakers were gathered to certify the electoral victory of now President Joe Biden, and Ocasio-Cortez described the resulting chaos as a “pel zombie movie. ”
During his Instagram Live, he said:“ We cannot move forward without accountability . We cannot heal without accountability. All these people who tell us to move forward are doing it at their convenience. ”
He added:“ The people who say: ‘We must move on’, ‘we should not have responsibility’, and so on. , they’re saying, ‘Can you just forget about this so we can, you know, do it again?’ ”
Ocasio-Cortez described how she hid in her office bathroom at the Congress during the chaos of the Capitol riots last month.
“I thought I was going to die,” he said.
He told how he hid behind the bathroom door and saw a white man barging into his office, yelling, “Where is he? Where is he? ”
The congresswoman indicated that the man was a Capitol Police officer, but he looked at her with“ anger and hostility ”and did not identify himself as a member of the police.
Ocasio-Cortez said that she and her staff did not know if the officer was there to “help us or hurt us.”
He added: “For many of those who listen: if they have experienced some kind of trauma, the simple fact of recognizing it and admitting it , is already a big step “.
” Especially in a world where people are constantly trying to tell you that you did not experience what you experienced or that you are lying. “
” Or that, you know, those are additional traumas to those you have already experienced, right? Because if you are a survivor of abuse, neglect, verbal abuse, sexual assault, you know, there is also the trauma of analyzing what you went through ” .
“And then there is the subsequent trauma of people who don’t believe you, or try to publicly humiliate you or embarrass you.”
“And that is also internalized, because many times you don’t want to believe it either “.
“You don’t want to think that this happened to you. you. You don’t want to think that person X hurt you. ”
“ You don’t want to admit that you were a person who has been abused, attacked, etc., because you don’t want to be a ‘victim’, right? “.
” Are they going to believe you? “
Ocasio-Cortez said she was prepared for criticism after sharing her experience of sexual assault because it was not directly related to the Capitol riots.
“People are going to say, ‘Oh, she’s just trying to make the experience about her,'” he said.
“And everyone those normal and annoying thoughts. And, as I said, all your traumas can intersect and interact. ”
He indicated that Congress had made therapists available to legislators, especially those who had encountered the rioters, to help them process the experience.
Ocasio-Cortez added: “Those people who are just trying to tell us to keep going. s forward they want to tear the page, they are using the same tactics of any other abuser who simply tells you to move on “.
” Like that man who touched you inappropriately at work and tells you to keep going, are they going to believe you? ”
“Or the adult who, you know, if they hurt you when you were a child and you grow up and you confront them and try to tell you that what happened never happened.”
Now you can receive notifications from BBC News World. Download our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!
