AOC Was in the Cannon Building During Riots
The Claim
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) wasn’t in the Capitol Building during Her ‘Near Death’ Experience.
News posted on
Emerging story
A tweet by Jack Posobiec on February 3rd, 2021 claims that “AOC wasn’t in the Capitol Building During Her ‘Near Death’ Experience” during the storming of the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
The original tweet was retweeted over six thousand times. The story was picked up by Media outlets like Fox News and YC.
Many users who shared the tweet called AOC a liar and one even called for her expulsion from Congress. Both #AlexandriaOcasioSmollett and #AOClied were trending on Twitter.
Both #AlexandriaOcasioSmollett and #AOClied were trending on Twitter. #AlexandriaOcasioSmollett is a reference to the case of Jussie Smollett, who has been accused of staging an attack on himself for publicity.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found this claim to be misleading. The post clearly aims to discredit AOC and make it seem like she was in no real danger on January 6th.
According to the New York Post, AOC was in her office, which is located in the Cannon building, when rioters stormed the Capitol. The building is part of the overall Capitol complex but is not within the Capitol building itself.
The reason people are attacking AOC is that rioters did not storm the Cannon building.
According to The Hill, some members of the news media retold Ocasio-Cortez's account of the Capitol storming incorrectly, saying that she “hid in the bathroom from rioters without noting that it was actually an officer who was banging on the door.”
According to the USA Today, near the time the mob breached the U.S. Capitol, someone began banging on the doors of her office. Fearing that rioters had entered the building, she hid inside a bathroom within her inner office. She heard a man yelling, “Where is she?” And she thought to herself, “They got inside.” She said she saw a man wearing a black beanie through the door hinge and, as he continued to yell for her, "I thought I was going to die." This is most likely the part of her story that people claim she is lying and exaggerating about.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter by claiming that the GOP is attempting to discredit her by using the “classic abuse playbook of ‘it’s not as bad as they say.’” She added, “It was that bad. It’s actually worse.”
According to The Independent, this all comes after AOC revealed that she was a victim of sexual assault, as she put in context the trauma she says she suffered in the wake of the Capitol riot.
It seems that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t actually lie in her January 6th account of rioters storming the Capitol, but many people feel that she exaggerated the danger that she was in.
