Ocasio-Cortez reveals she survived sexual assault. ‘I haven’t told many people that’

Bailey Aldridge
Updated

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed Monday that she’s a survivor of sexual assault during an Instagram video in which she described her experience during the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol.

“I haven’t told many people that in my life, but when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other,” the Democratic congresswoman from New York City said during the video.

She said the revelation may be a shock to people close to her.

“The reason I say this and the reason I’m getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal that we should forget what’s happened or even telling us to apologize, these are the same tactics of abusers,” she said of the Capitol riot, when a pro-Trump mob stormed Congress as lawmakers were working to certify then-President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, forcing evacuations and leaving five dead.

Ocasio-Cortez previously said that she feared for her life during the riot and has previously spoken out about receiving death threats.

Originally published

Latest Stories

  • White House defends Biden's meeting with GOP senators on COVID relief package

    White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that President Biden’s sit-down with a group of Republican senators on coronavirus relief legislation would be a “good faith” meeting of minds, despite the GOP’s rejection of several of the administration’s key proposals. 

  • Did Bernie's inauguration outfit epitomize 'white privilege'? A San Francisco teacher thinks so.

    While the casual outerwear and mittens Sen. Bernie Sanders donned at Biden’s inauguration became a viral sensation, not everyone was cheering.

  • FBI: 2 agents killed, 3 wounded, suspect dead in Florida

    Two FBI agents were fatally shot and three wounded while trying to serve a search warrant in Florida on Tuesday, prompting a SWAT team to storm an apartment building where the suspect was holed up as neighbors huddled inside their homes. The confrontation in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise marked one of the bloodiest days in FBI history in South Florida and among the deadliest nationally as well, according to the FBI website. The FBI agents had come to the apartment complex to serve a federal search warrant in connection with a case involving child pornography and violent crimes against children, according to FBI Miami Special Agent Michael D. Leverock and FBI Agents Association President Brian O’Hare.

  • Fauci urges COVID vaccinations to stop new strains: 'Viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate'

    As the U.S. turned the page on the deadliest month since the coronavirus pandemic began, the nation's top infectious disease expert urged Americans to get vaccinated to help prevent new variants from emerging.

  • Russian prosecutors back request to imprison Navalny as his wife fined for taking part in protests

    Russian state prosecutors on Monday said they would back an effort to jail opposition politician Alexei Navalny for up to three and a half years at a court hearing taking place on Tuesday despite international condemnation. After a second weekend of nationwide protests in support of Mr Navalny, a court is expected to rule on whether to convert a previous suspended sentence on fraud charges into a custodial one. On Sunday, thousands of people took the streets for the second straight weekend, with police estimated to have detained more than 5,300 people nationwide. The protests are seen as a growing problem for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who is the country's longest serving leader since Josef Stalin. More protests have been organised for Tuesday. Mr Navalny faces a prison term for alleged probation violations from a 2014 money-laundering conviction which is widely seen as politically motivated.

  • China strips license from second lawyer for HK activists

    A second Chinese lawyer who represented a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist was stripped of his license on Tuesday as Beijing attempts to crush opposition to its tighter control over the territory. Ren Quanniu, who represented one of 12 Hong Kong activists who tried to flee to Taiwan, said he had his license revoked by the Henan Provincial Justice Department.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Republicans who accept election process ‘weak’ in spat with Mitch McConnell

    A few old remarks by Ms Greene, including one where she suggested that school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, were staged, resurfaced last week

  • Israel says supplied first COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians

    Israel said on Monday it supplied the Palestinians with their first shipment of COVID-19 shots, totalling 2,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine. The vaccines were transferred into the occupied West Bank and will be used by Palestinian Authority medical teams, according to a statement by COGAT, Israel's military liaison to the Palestinians. Israel has earmarked an additional 3,000 doses for the Palestinians, said a COGAT spokesman.

  • Manchin will support Democrats' reconciliation bill, allowing COVID relief to move forward without GOP

    Democrats are all set to move forward with their COVID-19 relief bill, leaving Republicans in the dust. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday introduced a budget resolution bill that would allow them to pass President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus with just a simple majority in both chambers. And on Tuesday, they got the final vote they needed to solidify that majority, as holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) indicated he'd support the resolution. Schumer and Pelosi filed a joint budget resolution for the 2021 Fiscal Year on Monday, taking the first step needed to introduce a Budget Reconciliation bill and pass the stimulus with just 50 votes in the Senate. Manchin seemed to complicate their plans, indicating he wanted a more targeted distribution of stimulus checks instead of a flat $1,400 sent to all Americans. But "because of the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis," Manchin said in a Tuesday statement he'd vote for the budget. He'd like Biden to focus on "Americans who have been impacted most by this pandemic" in the future, and said he "remains hopeful that we can have bipartisan support moving forward." Democrat @Sen_JoeManchin says he'll support moving forward procedurally to tee up doing a new Covid aid package with only Democrat votes, but notes that Biden "remains hopeful that we can have bipartisan support moving forward." pic.twitter.com/xFPDS2ZIgd — Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) February 2, 2021 Manchin's change of heart comes after West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R), a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump and adversary of Manchin, indicated his support for the $1.9 trillion bill on Monday. A group of 10 centrist Republican senators presented Biden with a $618 billion stimulus proposal on Monday that includes smaller stimulus checks, and leaves out local government funding. Pelosi and Schumer's move seems to indicate their plan is bust. More stories from theweek.comMeatballs, f-bombs, vote fraud conspiracies: A Trump Oval Office meeting so insane, Giuliani was 'the voice of reason'Rise of the Barstool conservativesDolly Parton rewrites '9 to 5' to confusingly celebrate having a second job

  • Pakistan orders man acquitted in Pearl murder off death row

    Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government “safe house." Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, will be under guard and will not be allowed to leave the safe house, but he will be able to have his wife and children visit him.

  • Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made at least $24 million in final year in White House

    Donald Trump’s eldest daughter made $1.4m from stake in Trump International Hotel

  • Biden redirecting Trump's $30 billion fund used for farmers impacted by trade war

    The Biden administration wants to use the Agriculture Department money to tackle climate change, support restaurants and kickstart other programs without waiting for Congress; Fox Business Network's Charles Payne reacts.

  • One Person’s Trash Is Another Person’s Coffee Table

    Furniture made from waste materials just keeps getting better—and easier to buyOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Torture, forced labour rife in North Korea, U.N. says as U.S. mulls sanctions

    Torture and forced labour are rife in North Korea's prisons, amounting to possible crimes against humanity, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday, as the Biden administration weighs fresh sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme. The report, issued seven years after a landmark U.N. investigation found that crimes against humanity were being committed, also said that political prison camps run by security forces still persisted, although information is more scarce. “Not only does impunity prevail, but human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity continue to be committed,” Michelle Bachelet, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

  • Archaeologists unearth 2,000-year-old mummies with golden tongues in northern Egypt

    Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed more than a dozen 2,000-year-old mummies, including some with gold tongues in their mouths, according to the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The Egyptian-Dominican team from the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic was working at the Taposiris Magna Temple in western Alexandria when it discovered the remains of 16 ancient Egyptians buried in rock tombs. The mummies were poorly preserved and in a state of significant decomposition, but photographs released by the ministry showed a human skeleton with a clearly visible, tongue-shaped piece of gold placed in its jaw. According to officials, the amulets “were placed in the mouth of the mummy in a special ritual to ensure their ability to speak in the afterlife before the Osirian court.” In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the god of the afterlife, as well as fertility and agriculture. Dr Kathleen Martinez, who headed the team, explained that of the 16 mummies, the two most important had preserved alongside them the remains of scrolls and parts of their cartonnage – a kind papyrus or linen-based papier-mache used to construct the intricate “face masks” that envelop the mummified bodies inside their sarcophagi.

  • Future of Holocaust research in Poland hinges on libel case

    Two Polish historians are facing a libel trial for a scholarly examination of Polish behavior during World War II, a case whose outcome is expected to determine the fate of independent Holocaust research under Poland’s nationalist government. A verdict is expected in Warsaw's district court on Feb. 9 in the case against Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, historians with the Polish Center for Holocaust Research in Warsaw.

  • White House tries to pacify Democratic senator upset at Kamala Harris doing media in his state without telling him

    Joe Manchin annoyed at vice president plugging Covid relief without his knowledge

  • Once united in support of Biden, environmentalists and unions clash over pipelines

    Environmentalists and labor unions that threw their support behind U.S. President Joseph Biden now find themselves on the opposite sides of a battle over the construction of big pipeline projects between Canada and the United States. The United States is the world's largest producer of oil and gas. Biden's administration aims to transition the U.S. economy towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and his initial moves towards that goal included cancelling a permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline (KXL) and reducing oil-and-gas leasing.

  • Northern Ireland border staff withdrawn from duty over safety fears

    All regulatory animal-based food checks have been suspended at Belfast and Larne ports, Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) has said. It comes after council staff at Larne Port were withdrawn from inspection duties amid concerns for their safety and welfare. A Daera spokesman said: "On the basis of information received today and pending further discussions with the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland), Daera has decided in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast. "The situation will be kept under review and in the meantime full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual." Twelve Mid and East Antrim Borough Council staff assisting officials from Daera and UK Border Force with checks at the port were withdrawn from their duties with immediate effect on Monday. The council said the decision was made following an "upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks". Graffiti appeared in the area last month referencing tensions about the Northern Ireland Protocol and describing port staff as "targets". There have also been a number of daubings in Belfast amid anger at the protocol, with a raft of new checks on goods arriving at ports from Great Britain introduced at the start of the year.

  • AOC: 'I'm a survivor of sexual assault'

    "I'm a survivor of sexual assault, and I haven't told many people that in my life..."In an emotional video release, U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has revealed that she was sexually assaulted in the past.Ocasia-Cortez did not elaborate on the alleged incident in her Instagram broadcast, or say when it occurred. But she also described in the video the terror she felt during the storming of the U.S. Capitol last month."Whether you had someone who was verbally abusive to you, whether you are a survivor of abuse, whether you experienced any sort of trauma in your life, small to large, these episodes can compound on one another.""These folks who are just trying to tell us to move on are just like pulling the page, they're using the same tactics of every other abuser who just tells you to move on - of that man who touched you inappropriately at work, telling you to move on.""This is not about a difference of political opinion. This is about just like basic humanity. "In her Instagram broadcast, the Democrat describes her fear. She is demanding that Republican politicians be held to account for the siege.She says she was harassed by former President Donald Trump supporters before the storming and was warned by other members of Congress to be "careful" that day.Ocasio-Cortez recounted hiding behind a bathroom door in her office, before fleeing and hiding for hours in a neighboring building."I felt that and if this was the journey that my life was taking, that I felt that things were going to be OK, and that, you know, I had fulfilled my purpose."Several Congressional committees are investigating the security failures behind the attacks, in which five people died and dozens of police officers were injured.