Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Describes What It Was Like During The Capitol Attack
Jan. 6, 2021, was supposed to be both a historical and a procedural day in Congress. The electoral vote count would be read aloud by the vice president and certified, something that has been done by countless vice presidents before without incident after every American election and two weeks before the winner is to be inaugurated. This would be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's first electoral vote certification, and it was clear from the start that it would not be a normal one.
As Americans and the world now know, former President Donald Trump led a Stop the Steal rally on the ellipse in Washington, D.C., and then told his followers to march to the Capitol and that he would march with them. Although he didn't, they did. The Capitol was breached, and a fatal insurrection took place, leading terrified lawmakers to hide where they could as they feared for their lives.
Ocasio-Cortez was one of those lawmakers who hid from the mob, wondering if she would survive this attack on our nation.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had warning there might be trouble January 6
Weeks after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram Live and described what she was doing as an angry mob of Americans who voted for Donald Trump in the last election turned violent on police officers and others who got in their way.
During the video, she recalled how she had been warned via various text messages in the week leading up to January 6 that she would need to plan for her safety. On one of the days leading up to the attack, she found Trump supporters heckling her by her car, describing that time as "actively volatile and dangerous" (via Upworthy).
The Capitol Police assured Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers that they were prepared for January 6 but would give them no details of any special plans out of fear there might be leaks. When the day finally arrived, she ended up hiding in her office bathroom as she heard men's voices calling for her.
She described her most terrifying moment
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained in detail what she personally went through the day of the Capitol riot and how she believed those moments might have been the last of her life.
"I opened a door and all of the sudden I hear that whoever was trying to get inside, got into my office," she said (via Upworthy). "Then I realized that it's too late. That it's too late for me to get into the closet. And so, I go back in and I hide back in the bathroom, behind the door, and then I just hear these yells of 'Where is she? Where is she?' And I just thought to myself 'They got inside.'"
She then illustrated how she got behind the bathroom door and stood against the wall, continuing to hear the voices asking where she was. "I thought this was the moment where everything was over," she said. "And the weird thing about moments like these is that you lose all sense of time. In retrospect, maybe it was four seconds, maybe it was 10 seconds, maybe it was one second, I don't know. It felt like my brain was able to have so many thoughts ... I mean, I thought I was going to die."
She then said that her thoughts became spiritual. "If this is the plan for me, then people will be able to take it from here," she recalled thinking. "I had fulfilled my purpose."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hid with a colleague
Thankfully, it turned out that the men who were calling for her were not rioters but instead Capitol Police officers who hadn't announced who they were. Her aide assured her that it was safe, and the officers instructed them both to go to another building — but they didn't specify which building. So, she banged on the door of fellow Congresswoman Katie Porter and stayed in her office for hours, hiding and borrowing a puffer jacket in case she had to blend in with the rioters and escape out a window, according to Upworthy.
The same night that Ocasio-Cortez shared her video, Porter appeared on MSNBC and described the moment she found her young colleague and what they said. "I was like, 'Can I help you? What are you looking for?' and she said, 'I'm looking for where I'm going to hide,'" Porter recalled. "I said, 'Well don't worry, I'm a mom, I'm calm' ... and she said, 'I just hope I get to be a mom.'"
As we know, thankfully, Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of her House and Senate colleagues survived that day to tell their stories.