AOC Will Not Be Cowed by the Right
Last week’s attack on the Capitol put Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other left lawmakers in great danger. But instead of cowering in fear, she delivered a defiant speech on Tuesday — and laid out an alternative vision rooted in solidarity and improving the lives of millions of workers.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a House Financial Services Committee oversight hearing, on December 2, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
On Tuesday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) took to Instagram Live to describe her experience of last week’s siege on the US Capitol in harrowing detail. Not only did AOC and other lawmakers have to contend with the armed, Confederate flag–wielding mob in the Capitol, but, as AOC pointed out, there was no safety among her so-called colleagues either. “There were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers and frankly white supremacist members of Congress . . . who I had felt would have disclosed my location.”
Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to death threats from the far right, misogynistic abuse from right-wing Republicans, and insults from the president himself. In the face of these attacks, she has remained consistent and defiant in backing policies to improve the lives of millions.
Yet the siege on the Capitol exposed AOC and others to another level of danger. Regardless of debates on the Left about how well-coordinated the attacks were, or whether they represent an advance or defeat for the far right, there is no doubt that last week’s attack — egged on by Trump, Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, and others — posed a mortal danger to lawmakers, and to left lawmakers in particular.
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