On Monday night, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed in a brave and candid video on Instagram Live her deep trauma after the January 6 Capitol Hill siege and the prior trauma that compounded it. Ocasio-Cortez revealed that she is a survivor of sexual assault. She began to cry while recounting the events of January 6, but fought to continue telling her story. She explained, "All of your traumas can sort of intersect and interact."

Ocasio-Cortez compared Republicans' insistence that she and other survivors of the January 6 attack "get over it" to tactics used by their abusers. She added, "Those who are saying that we should move on, that there should be no accountability, etc., are saying, 'Can we please forget about this so we can do it again?' ...... I am not going to let this happen again: ...... And I'm not going to let this country do this," he added. [On January 6, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, she hid in the bathroom of her office. Ocasio-Cortez hid in the bathroom of her office when Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill on January 6. Ocasio-Cortez knew she was the target of threats. Days before the attack, she had been told to be careful, especially on January 6. 'I have never been so quiet in my life.'

Ocasio-Cortez explained that she hid in Congresswoman Katie Porter's office to stay safe. At one point, she hid in search of remnants of her gym clothes so that she could escape the Capitol unscathed. She detailed how she was preparing to jump out of a window, how she was "fully braced for impact," and how she didn't know which officers to trust." Are some officers safer than others because of their white-sounding or masculine names?"

she said.

She told viewers: "If you're going through some kind of trauma, just the fact that you recognize and acknowledge it is already a big step. Especially in a world where we are constantly being told that we are not experiencing what we have experienced or that we are being lied to. ...... Those things are just more trauma on top of the trauma you have already experienced. There is the trauma of what you have experienced and then there is the trauma of what you have experienced. People don't believe you, they try to publicly shame you, they try to embarrass you."

Sadly, knowing you are a target is nothing new for Ocasio-Cortez. Last year, she told Vanity Fair (opens in new tab): (opens in new tab) "I used to wake up in the morning and there would literally be piles of photos forwarded to me from the Capitol Police and the FBI. These are the people who are trying to kill you today,'" he said.

On Twitter, people praised Ocasio-Cortez for sharing her trauma in such a public way.

AOC concluded: "I have given myself time and space to heal ...... I believe these are important stories to tell. My story is not the only story. It is far from the central story. But we all have 435 stories to tell. If you have experienced trauma in your life, I want you to know that you don't have to experience the worst or the greatest.