Nick Arama
RedStateWed, 03 Feb 2021 09:26 UTC
© AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
We've reported various aspects of the account of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) of what happened to her on Jan. 6 during the breach at the Capitol. But there are some very critical facts that have been missing from her story that I wanted to talk about here.
The story, as it was initially related by
AOC, suggested that she was about to be assassinated by rioters in her office in a video that has been viewed over 6 million times.
Newsweek even
claimed that's what AOC said.
Ocasio-Cortez said that rioters actually entered her office, forcing her to take refuge inside her bathroom after her legislative director Geraldo Bonilla-Chavez told her to "hide, hide, run and hide."
"And so I run back into my office," Ocasio-Cortez said. "I slam my door. There's another kind of like back area to my office, and I open it, and there's a closet and a bathroom. And I jump into my bathroom."
As it turns out, however, as my colleague Bonchie
reported earlier, AOC said in her Instagram drama that
the person who came to her office was a Capitol Police officer. But she denigrated the officer who came to help,
claiming he "didn't feel right" and that he was looking at her "in all of this anger and hostility." Her staffer reportedly wondered if he would have to fight the officer and suggested that he might put them in a "vulnerable situation."
So, basically, this story is about hyping the danger to the members and trying to say people still have to fear those inconsiderate uncaring police (even when they're coming to help you). She's even been called out by folks on the left for the effort to demonize the officer and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), as my colleague Sister Toldjah
observed.
But a few important things to note that seem to have been left out of this whole story.
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.
According to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who has an office in the same hall as AOC, two doors away,
there were never any rioters in their hall so there was never any physical danger from rioters coming in at any point.
AOC's building appears to have been briefly evacuated during the day as police checked on a nearby suspicious package that was later cleared.
So 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 likely didn't have time for all the niceties.
Comment: It is evident that AOC was not even at the (main Capitol) building while she has her "near-death experience." It's a good thing, reporters, like Nick Arama, are tracking down the real story.
© Google MapsAOC's office is nowhere near the main Capitol Building
It is ok to censor and "fact check" everything that is posted by ordinary people on social media, it is also ok to censor and ban ex-president Donald Trump from social media, but is not ok to fact check the
story of AOC, because it is obvious that she is lying and manipulating the public.
The New York congresswoman suggested this week that the police officer who evacuated her from her office during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot actually endangered her โ and maybe even sympathized with efforts to do her harm. After all, Ocasio-Cortez explained Monday during an Instagram livestream, the officer allegedly looked at her with "a tremendous amount of anger and hostility."
Ocasio-Cortez claims she heard loud bangs in her office during the riot "like someone was trying to break the door down." She claims she went to hide in the bathroom, at which point she heard someone enter her office and say, "Where is she?"
And that's the obvious problem here, that there is basically no pushback against Ocasio-Cortez from the industry that spent the past four years telling us how good it is at holding the powerful to account.
Who is the police officer in the congresswoman's story? What is his take on her version of events? Will he have a chance to defend himself? Will establishment journalists even bother to uncover his identity?
This is no small thing, accusing a member of the U.S. Capitol police of possibly conspiring with a seditious, murderous mob.
There were serious discussions and actions taken during the latter half of the Trump administration to censor the president and his minions. Newsrooms that participated in the blackout argued that it was too dangerous to allow President Donald Trump and his cohort a platform to spread lies and rumors. Ocasio-Cortez, on the other hand, faces no similar scrutiny or censorship, despite the fact that her tales likewise lack evidence. Indeed, there is eagerness among a great many reporters simply to parrot the congresswoman's remarks, without even so much as the pretense of seeking out corroborating evidence.
More than 100 Capitol Hill police officers were injured protecting members of Congress. One officer died. Two more have committed suicide.
None of Congress's 535 members were hurt during the riot.
If Ocasio-Cortez knows something about the motivations of the officer who evacuated her from her office, something beyond "he looked angry," she has a responsibility to provide the public with that information. The press should likewise do its job and actually vet her remarks for truthfulness.
Comment: It is evident that AOC was not even at the (main Capitol) building while she has her "near-death experience." It's a good thing, reporters, like Nick Arama, are tracking down the real story.