Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed that she is a survivor of sexual assault for the first time in public as she invoked the January 6 insurrection at Capitol Hill.
“They’re trying to tell us to move on without any accountability, without any truth-telling, or without confronting the extreme damage, loss of life, trauma,” Ocasio-Cortez said, calling out Republicans who opposed impeaching President Donald Trump.
Republicans are eager to put the Capitol Hill riots behind them, but Ocasio-Cortez wants everybody to be held accountable for their parts.
“The reason I say this, and the reason I’m getting emotional is because they told us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what happened, or even telling us to apologize. These are the tactics of abusers. I’m a survivor of sexual assault, and I haven’t told many people that in my life,” she continued. “But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other. Whether you had a negligent parent, or whether you had someone who was verbally abusive to you, whether you are a survivor of abuse, whether you experience any sort of trauma in your life, small to large. These episodes can compound on each other.”
She added, “We need accountability because accountability is not about revenge, it’s not about getting back at people, it’s not about any of that. It’s about creating safety. We are not safe with people who hold positions of power, who are willing to endanger the lives of others if they think it will score them a political point. Because they what, want to what run for president four years from now?”
Watch the clip below.
