Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she had a 'close encounter' during the Capitol riot and 'thought I was going to die'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is speaking out about her "traumatizing" experience at the Capitol building during last week's deadly pro-Trump riot, revealing a "very close encounter" made her fear for her life.

The New York lawmaker spoke on Instagram about what she described as a "traumatizing week for so many people" after a mob of President Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol building in a riot that left five people dead. She referenced a "close encounter" she had during the riot, one she said she couldn't provide further details on for security reasons.

"I had a pretty traumatizing event happen to me," she said. "And I do not know if I can even disclose the full details of that event due to security concerns, but I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die. ... I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive. And not just in a general sense, but also in a very, very specific sense."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Ocasio-Cortez told viewers that it "is not an exaggeration to say that many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated" during the riot, and lawmakers were "very lucky that things happened within certain minutes" so they weren't harmed.

"But many of us nearly and narrowly escaped death," Ocasio-Cortez added.

She also described having feared, after being taken to a secure location with other lawmakers, that certain "white supremacist members of Congress" would "disclose my location" and "create opportunities to allow me to be hurt" or "kidnaped." Brendan Morrow