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On Thursday night, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sobbed as she recalled watching the first broadcast primetime hearings on the January 6th Capitol brawl.
The 32-year-old Squad member was obviously disturbed at having to’relive’ the Capitol siege during an 11-minute Instagram broadcast.
‘I’m enraged. ‘Having to go through that footage again,’ she began. ‘I know it’s not just me,’ says the narrator. This applies to everyone.’
The January 6 committee is launching a series of hearings this month to present its findings and demonstrate how former President Trump oversaw an attempt to rig the 2020 election in a desperate bid to stay in power.
Scenes of violence, as well as footage of Trump supporters packing the Capitol, were shown at Thursday’s hearing.
‘At the hearing, they didn’t just show old film; they showed new footage from that day and new information.’ Information that is shocking. Information such as how Republican members of Congress sought pardons before the insurgency without realizing what they were about to do,’ Ocasio-Cortez explained.
‘New footage from that day was replayed.’ I’m just angry, and I know I’m not the only one.’
Ocasio-Cortez has been outspoken about her experiences during the riots for a long time. She revealed in August that she was afraid she might be raped during the attack. On Thursday’s broadcast, she made no mention of such anxieties, but the emotions were still strong.
‘There is such a concerted right-wing operation to try and convince everybody that this didn’t happen. That this wasn’t a big deal. This was an attempted coup of the United States of America,’ AOC explained.
‘When former President Trump’s own people told him ‘No!’, he was going to fire every single person down the train in order to retain power. These attacks killed people, traumatized people and for any of you rightt-winger Trump loyalists, he sent his own people to jail, and promised his own people that he would pardon them. He will not save you. He is a man who only cares about himself.
‘Those gallows and the nooses that they put up in the plaza were for real and people think that just because this man was on reliant TV that this wasn’t real. This was not entertainment. It’s real F-ing life. There’s so much frustration and failure in the present moment but we have to keep the focus on the bigger picture,’ she continued.
Ocasio-Cortez has continued to speak up about the January 6 riot. In January 2021, she warned that the GOP leaders who dismissed consequences for those involved in the riots were ‘opening the door for it to happen again.’ She shared such sentiments with her 8.5million followers.
‘Very little has changed. Virtually nothing has changed. Ted Cruz voted to protect the behavior. We are on the precipice, legally, of facism. No law was ever passed to prevent this from happening again. I dislike the lesser-of-two-evils-politics just as much as anybody else but we have to understand that this stuff is not even close. This is about if we’re gonna have a Democracy or not. They are running away from it and pretending that this never happened,’ AOC suggested of the Republican Party.
‘If anything the Republicans have only grown more supportive and defending of what happened on that day,’ she said.
‘They were the most truthful when they were the most scared on the day-of and the day after the attack. Since then, they have only committed hard to the lie. They were trying to kill people. They [the rioters] were trying to kill, find and identify people.
‘For the Capitol Police officers that did try and defend the Capitol, 21 Republicans voted against giving them the Congressional Gold Medal,’ AOC said incredulously.
‘This was planned. I received so many notifications leading up to that day. People telling me dress to in plain clothes. Telling me I was going to be a target. Let’s also dispense with this myth it was poor people. These people had private jets, were staying at nice hotels and were going to happy hour afterwards. They had resources. They were targeting the Vice President and the Speaker of the House as well as everybody who was in that chamber and on that campus.
‘Not only that, they have been committed to covering it up every day since.’
The 32-year-old Squad member was clearly distressed during an 11-minute Instagram broadcast about having to “relive” the Capitol siege.
‘I’m furious.’ She began, “Having to relive that film.” ‘I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. ‘Everyone’s here.’
The January 6 committee is launching a series of hearings this month to present its findings and demonstrate how former President Trump oversaw an attempt to rig the 2020 election in a desperate bid to keep power.
Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot — he was charged with inciting an insurrection — but was acquitted by the Senate.
