AOC claims that her ‘rapist’ denied attacking her and that the incident was “pivotal” to her decision to run for president.

In an interview that was released on Wednesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke openly about having experienced sexual assault. She described the anguish and difficulty of facing the guy who, according to her, sexually assaulted her while she was in her early 20s.

She said that while she didn’t recognize it at the time, the incident contributed to her decision to run for government years later.

The political cover hero of GQ’s October edition is the fiery Democratic candidate.

The 32-year-old “Squad” member gets the full treatment as she poses on the steps of the US Capitol while wearing a long, black gown.

In the enlightening cover story, she talks about the sexism experienced by prominent women and why her own presidential aspirations failed to materialize once she was elected to Congress.

She also discusses her choice to inform New York demonstrators that she had been raped when she was 22 or 23 after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

‘One major trauma that a lot of survivors of assault deal with is a struggle with being believed,’ she said.

‘There are aspects of it that I may never share because of the trauma of having that experience litigated in public.’

There was value in going public, she continued.

‘It was someone that I was dating that I was not sexually active with, who forced themselves upon me,’ she said, adding that things did not go well when she confronted him later.

‘The insistence on a denial of what happened that very, very clearly happened is also a through line with other women’s experiences, friends that I’ve had, or just a pretending that what very clearly happened, did not happen,’ she said.

‘That, too, is also an assertion of power, and so this assertion of power and dominance over others is not limited to the actual physical fact, but how things are treated afterwards.’

When she later confided in colleagues at the restaurant where she worked, she learned that her experience was not been unique.

‘It was like everyone had been sexually assaulted that I had worked with,’ she said.

The experience, she added, was a factor that propelled her into public service.

‘My sexual assault was a pivotal event in the trajectory that led me to run for office,’ she said.

‘I can say that in retrospect, but obviously I didn’t know that at the time.’

AOC was elected to Congress in 2018. Although victory was all but a certainty in a liberal district in New York City, her story of getting to that point made her an overnight star.

The former bar worker defeated the incumbent Democrat in a primary. Joe Crowley, with his deep-pocketed backers was a presumed future speaker of the House, but AOC’s determined band of supporters ensured an upset.

Once in the House, AOC formed an alliance with other likeminded freshmen and women, forming ‘the Squad’ of outspoken leftists.

GQ bills her as ‘the political voice of a generation—and a cultural star whose power transcends politics.’

Some of the progressive left have begun to talk about her as a future leader of the movement and a possible presidential candidate.

But AOC said her experience in Congress, and that hate directed at women, had made her believe that not everyone could grow up to be president.

‘Sometimes little girls will say, “Oh, I want you to be president,’ or things like that,’ she said.

‘It’s very difficult for me to talk about because it provokes a lot of inner conflict in that I never want to tell a little girl what she can’t do.

‘And I don’t want to tell young people what is not possible. I’ve never been in the business of doing that. But at the same time…’

Such is the hatred, she said, that she even fears making plans for the future.

‘I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible,’ said Ocasio-Cortez.

‘But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women.

‘And they hate women of color.

‘People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September.

‘And that weighs very heavily on me. And it’s not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center.’

She got engaged to long-term boyfriend Riley Roberts in April. But in the interview with GQ she described her doubts about being with a white man, and whether a multiracial, multicultural relationship would be the right fit for her.

Then there is her rapid rise. Some men don’t actually want to be with an independent, successful woman.

‘The moment you start being yourself, they kind of freak out,’ she said.

‘I think it causes a conflict within them that they didn’t even anticipate. It’s not even a deception. It’s just, they uncover insecurities that they didn’t know were there.’

She also discussed her terrifying experience on January 6 last year, how she huddled in corners of different offices convinced that she was going to die.

And she explained why she revealed that she had previously been sexually assaulted during an Instagram post in which she talked about the attack on Congress.

‘I could not talk about that day without disclosing it, because it was such a central part of my experience,’ she said.

‘I felt like I could not really adequately communicate what that experience was without giving people the context of what I had lived through and what was being echoed, because so much of it was about resonance and fear of a thing that was not theoretical but a fear of a thing that I had experienced.’

Rather than walk the short distance from her home to the U.S. Capitol, she said she now prefers to drive most days.