Democratic lawmakers join Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in sharing Capitol riot experiences
speaking about their experiences during the Jan. 6 deadly riot on the Capitol on the House floor.
After days of backlash since Ocasio-Cortez told her own story from that day on social media, the congresswoman organized an hour aimed at “creating space for members to talk about their lived experience on January 6 and the need for accountability.”
In sometimes emotional speeches, members talked about where they were the day insurrectionists breached the Capitol and the need for accountability for the rhetoric they say incited the violence.
Members such as Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Fla., recognized the police officers and other staffers who put their lives in danger that day to defend Congress, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day from injuries sustained in the attack and who laid in honor at the Capitol earlier this week.
AOC is explaining something about trauma. Experts say we should listen.
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., said he was one of 20 of his colleagues who were in the gallery and took cover on the floor among the seats while rioters attempted to breach the room.
“We know what it feels like searching for something, anything, with which to defend ourselves, and realizing a pencil is about all we had,” Phillips said. “And we know what it feels like that it’s a real possibility that we would not see our families and loved ones again. We won’t forget.”
Freshman Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., compared the experience on Jan. 6 to that of participating in anti-racism protests and facing violence from police and white supremacists.
“I feel like I’m back,” she said. “I feel like this was one of the days on the streets when the white supremacists would show up and start shooting at us,” Bush said.
The “special order hour” organized by Ocasio-Cortez came days after she spoke of her time during the deadly pro-Trump riots.
On Instagram Live on Monday, the Democrat from New York recounted the fear she experienced when a Capitol Police officer she initially thought was an insurrectionist entered her office, and how she later sheltered with Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., and barricaded Porter’s office doors for hours.
More:Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she is a sexual assault survivor, and the Capitol riot should be treated like trauma.
“The reason I’m getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it’s no big, that we should forget … these are the same tactics of abusers,” Ocasio-Cortez said Monday. “And I’m a survivor of sexual assault. … But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other.”
“‘Can we just forget this happened so that I can do it again without recourse?’ And that’s what these folks are asking,” she said during her Instagram Live.
On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez repeated her condemnation of some Republicans she said are pushing their colleagues to move on from the events of Jan. 6, likening the actions to those of abusers.
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., echoed her in urging people to take the events that happened Jan. 6, and other traumatic events, seriously.
“Don’t let anybody gaslight, or belittle or dismiss what happened on Jan. 6,” Takano said. “It was a serious event.”