Tipsheet

Fact Check the Left: Did Ocasio-Cortez Mislead the Public About Her Location During Capitol Hill Riot?

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  February 04, 2021 1:25 PM

Editor’s Note: If you’d like to support us directly so we can continue to take on the Left with this type of hard-hitting conservative journalism, join Townhall VIP.

Usually, we save these posts for VIP members, but I think we can all look at the latest misleading claim hurled by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) during the January 6 riot that engulfed the Capitol Building.

The New York leftist is getting dragged on social media. She has gone on a tirade about why we shouldn’t move on from the Capitol Hill riot on January 6. That’s the day pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building as members of Congress were certifying the 2020 election results. Five people died. It derailed the GOP’s symbolic move of challenging the Electoral College results. This was going to happen at least three times. The objection would be lobbed, the House and Senate would go to their respective chambers for up to two hours of debate, hold another vote to verify the allocation of the electoral votes, and then continue with the certification process. Protesters stormed the US Capitol as the first objection was being debated.

Ocasio-Cortez, and I know some of you don’t like me saying this, is smarter than she looks. She’s a masterful communicator. It’s manipulation for sure — but she knows how to reach her audience, how to animate them, and how to use social media. Donald Trump has the same skill when it comes to audience engagement on these platforms.

She took aim at the "move on" calls, saying that this is the rhetoric of abusers. That’s when she dropped the bombshell that she was a survivor of sexual assault. And there is the iron dome protection shield. I’m not here to discuss the veracity of that claim, but if you criticize her on that point — you’re an abuser, a rape apologist, and a sexual assault survivor basher. That’s how it will be hurled back at you — and there’s no winning that argument. Not with this Republican Party, by and large. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tried to pivot away from the Capitol Building storming as he tried to be buddy-buddy with AOC over the corrupt interference by elite Wall Street forces nixing the GameStop populist surge. Ocasio-Cortez responded by pretty much saying shove it and adding that Sen. Cruz tried to have her murdered via the rioters. It’s an exaggeration for sure, but she knows how to deliver blows. I know she’s said immensely idiotic things about policy, like the earth ending in 12 years because of climate change. If that’s one of your go-to lines to use against her, we’ve already lost. That’s not the point. Who cares about some inaccuracies about public policy when you’re denigrating and attacking a sexual assault survivor? That’s where her communications skills should be watched since AOC will probably run for president someday. Stop dismissing her and start taking her seriously.

Recommended

Chris Cillizza Admits What We Knew All Along About Tim Walz Rebecca Downs
How Trump Could Be Shaking Up the Traditional WH Press Briefings Sarah Arnold

Like the British during the Napoleonic Wars, there is only one way to seize a gap to deliver a blow here, which is waiting for AOC to overextend herself. It took Napoleon invading Spain during the Peninsular War for the United Kingdom to seize an opportunity to strike back at Bonaparte. Well, AOC did that with her tale about surviving the Capitol riot. Someone had the patience to review this part about her rushing into the bathroom to hide from the protesters.

Here’s what she said on her Instagram Live segment this week (via NY Mag) [emphasis mine]:

“The reason I’m getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what’s happened, or even telling us to apologize — these are the same tactics of abusers.

And I’m a survivor of sexual assault and I haven’t told many people that in my life, but when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other. And so whether you had a neglectful 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 one another.”

Ocasio-Cortez also provided more details surrounding the insurrection, stating that a man broke into her office in Congress on January 6, during which she was hiding in her bathroom. “Where is she? Where is she?” she recalled the man asking. “This is the moment where I thought everything was over … It felt like my brain was able to have so many thoughts in that moment between these screams and these yells. I go down and … I thought I was going to die.”

Looking through the door hinge from the bathroom, Ocasio-Cortez recalled seeing “a white man in a black beanie open the door of my personal office.” Though she says the person did not identify himself, he was a Capitol police officer. “He was looking at me with a tremendous amount of anger and hostility.” After the encounter, she and a staffer ran to another building to looking for a place to hide, where she found Representative Katie Porter; together they barricaded in Porter’s office for five hours.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) called AOC out for her account, saying that no one stormed their office building. She’s two offices down from New York Congresswoman. Also, AOC makes it seem like she was in the actual US Capitol when the riot broke out. That’s not true either. Our friends at RedState did the digging here, so credit them for taking a line-by-line review of this story after the smoke from her sexual assault allegation died down a bit.

"AOC wasn’t even in the Capitol building where all the action was going down. If she was in her office, she was in the Cannon Building, which is nearby, but a different building. But of course, many didn’t get the logistics and just assumed that she was in the Capitol building," wrote Nick Arama at our sister site.

Her "near-death experience" was an overreaction to a Capitol Police officer knocking on her door to direct her to another building, the Longworth Building, where she then stayed in the office of Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA). Instead of thanking the officer, she paints him as somehow a possible danger of which to be afraid. The Capitol Police were likely trying to evacuate the building quickly. It’s possible the officer was focused on getting people out quickly, so they likely didn’t have time for all the niceties.

And here’s Mace’s tweet blowing up a key part of the narrative:

As you can see, AOC does not take kindly to people calling her out.

RATING: Yes, she did mislead her audience and the American people. Her own words, the offices' location, and remarks from her colleagues all point to AOC overreaching here. We’re not going to be able to attack AOC on a host of things initially. It’s going to take time. Not weeks or months, but a few hours to let things settle since everyone on the progressive Left goes haywire over anything she says. If there’s a sexual assault angle, the liberal media goes haywire regardless. It took less than a couple of days to dissect her own words, but it took patience. It’s the antithesis of what needs to be done regarding rapid response, but the end result, at least on this one, was pretty good. That being said, she won’t lose her following. She’s still a top, lefty Democrat. And she’ll find a way to counterattack. Our problem is that one misfire and the whole jig is up. Also, remember, AOC will always have the most powerful ally of all in this town:

We’ll wait to come to that juncture, however. For now, it looks like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is guilty of purposefully misleading her audience. Her own admission of where she was and the logistics point that out, but she’s not finished. Not by a long shot. These messaging wars have only just begun between us and AOC, and it will require patience to deliver jabs that don’t end with us falling into the same traps that get us in trouble, especially the ones the GOP fell through in 2012 a la Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock.

Also, it should be noted that these people left pipe bombs at both the Republican and Democratic national committee offices. And if you want to get a glimpse of how the Left is trying to defend her on this, just read Snopes—a notorious lefty fact-checker. They can’t. They even admit that she was in another building. Just let her talk, folks. She will deliver some hard blows and they’re well-executed, but just keep her talking. She’ll trip over herself, but she'll adapt. I have no question about that, which scares me.